The following information was received by email:
On August 15, 2012, the licensee notified the Agency [Texas Department of State Health Services] that sometime during the evening, a QSA Global 880D radiography camera was stolen out of the dark room of one of their trucks. The camera contained Iridium-192. The truck was parked at the licensee's office, however the Radiographer left the camera in the truck instead of transferring the camera to the vault. The thieves broke into five radiography trucks taking various items including generators and the one camera. A police report was filed with the Chamber County Sheriff's Department. The thieves did not take the crank outs or source tube.
The State of Texas event number for this event is I- 8979. Additional information will be provided in accordance with SA 300.
Notified DHS, FEMA, USDA, HHS, DOE, DHS NICC and EPA EOC.
- * * UPDATE ON 8/15/12 AT 1330 EDT FROM CHRIS MOORE TO DONG PARK * * *
On August 15, 2012, around 1130 [CDT], the licensee and Local Law Enforcement recovered the stolen QSA Global 880D Radiography Camera. The camera is stored in the vault at the licensee facility and is in normal working condition. [A person of interest has been identified]. The truck used by the thief was identified on video surveillance tape. The camera was in the back of truck at the residence of the thief. Investigation will continue for the company and radiographers [concerning] Increased Controls (IC) security violations.
Notified R4DO (Hagar), FSME (McIntosh), ILTAB (Whitney), IRD (Gott), Mexico via fax, DHS, FEMA, USDA, HHS, DOE, DHS NICC and EPA EOC.
THIS MATERIAL EVENT CONTAINS A "CATEGORY 2" LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL
Category 2 sources, if not safely managed or securely protected, could cause permanent injury to a person who handled them, or were otherwise in contact with them, for a short time (minutes to hours). It could possibly be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period of hours to days. These sources are typically used in practices such as industrial gamma radiography, high dose rate
brachytherapy and medium dose rate
brachytherapy. For additional information go to
http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1227_web.pdf