The following information was received via E-mail:
On June 12, 2015, a portable gauge was being stored in a locked box in the back of a truck which was locked in one of the user's garages. An ex-girlfriend, who had a copy of the truck keys, broke into the user's house and stole the truck with the gauge still in the back. The truck was reported stolen to the RSO on the morning of June 13, 2015. The RSO then made a police report and contacted the Agency's [Arizona Radiation Regulatory Agency] duty officer. The RSO stated that someone spotted the truck in Mesa, Arizona on the night of June 13, 2015. The gauge is a Troxler Model 3400 series, Serial Number 5310, containing 7.4 millicuries of Cesium-137 and 40 millicuries of Americium-241.
The truck is a white, 2007 GMC Sierra crew cab with Arizona license plate number: 415ZGV.
The investigation into this event is ongoing.
The US NRC, Maricopa County sheriff's office, Arizona DPS [Department of Public Safety], California, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona governor's office are being notified of this event.
Arizona First Notice Number: 15-009
- * * UPDATE ON 07/06/15 AT 1448 EDT FROM BRIAN GORETZKI TO JEFF HERRERA * * *
The following update was provided by the Arizona Radiation Regulatory Agency via email:
On July 5, 2015, City of Mesa police identified the stolen truck in the parking lot of Mountain View Medical Center. The portable gauge was still with the vehicle and it was relocated to the licensee's office. The licensee will perform a leak test prior to the gauge being used.
Notified the R4DO (Haire), ILTAB (Johnson), NMSS Events (via email) and CNSNS (MEXICO via email).
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