https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68189568

Inert nuclear missile found in US man's garage

Police in Washington state say an old rusted rocket found in a local man's garage is an inert nuclear missile.

On Wednesday, a military museum in Ohio called police in the city of Bellevue to report an offer of a rather unusual donation.

The police then sent a bomb squad to the potential donor's home.

"And we think it's gonna be a long, long time before we get another call like this again," police said referring to Elton John's iconic song Rocket Man.

In a press release, police say the device is "in fact a Douglas AIR-2 Genie (previous designation MB-1), an unguided air-to-air rocket that is designed to carry a 1.5 kt W25 nuclear warhead".

However, there was no warhead attached, meaning there was never any danger to the community.

Bellevue Police Department spokesman Seth Tyler, told BBC News on Friday that the device was "just basically a gas tank for rocket fuel".

He called the event "not serious at all".

"In fact, our bomb squad member asked me why we were releasing a news release on a rusted piece of metal," he said.

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