A company employee was robbed, at gunpoint, of his car which contained a
Troxler moisture density gauge in the trunk. The employee works for
MT Operating of NJ,
LLC, and was unable to return the
gauge to the normal company storage area in Wallingford,
CT., at the end of the day. The employee began working a second job in Bloomfield,
CT, where the robbery took place. The employee was also robbed of his cell phone and wallet, in addition to his car containing the
gauge.
The nuclear gauge is a Troxler Model 3411B, S/N 4783, which contains two radioactive sources. One source is 40 mCi of Am-241/Be and the other source is 8 mCi of Cs-137.
The licensee has notified the Bloomfield Connecticut Police Department to investigate the theft (case # 10-26288).
The licensee has other company employees searching the area in an attempt to locate the missing vehicle.
The licensee plans to make a press release and offer a cash reward.
- * * UPDATE ON 12/30/10 AT 2200 EST FROM PENNISI TO HUFFMAN * * *
The licensee states the Bloomfield Police Department has recovered the Troxler gauge. The circumstances of the recovery are not yet known, however, the gauge appears to be undamaged. Officials from the State of Connecticut have surveyed the gauge and determined found no evidence of unusual radiation levels. The gauge is in Police custody.
R1DO (Hansell), FSME (Watson) and ILTAB (Johnson via email) notified.
- * * UPDATE ON 12/30/10 AT 2300 EST FROM PENNISI TO SNYDER * * *
State of Connecticut informed the NRC Operations Center that the Troxler has been turned over to the licensee's RSO.
R1DO (Hansell), FSME (Watson) and ILTAB (Johnson via email) notified.
THIS MATERIAL EVENT CONTAINS A "LESS THAN CAT 3" LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL
Sources that are "Less than
IAEA Category 3 sources," are either sources that are very unlikely to cause permanent injury to individuals or contain a very small amount of radioactive material that would not cause any permanent injury. Some of these sources, such as
moisture density gauges or thickness
gauges that are Category 4, the amount of unshielded radioactive material, if not safely managed or securely protected, could possibly - although it is unlikely - temporarily injure someone who handled it or were otherwise in contact with it, or who were close to it for a period of many weeks. For additional information go to
http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1227_web.pdf