Received the following information via e-mail:
On October 22, 2007, a letter, dated 10/17/07, was received from Haytham (deleted), RSO, reporting a stolen nuclear gauge (Troxler 3400 Series, S/N 14411). The incident happened on 10/15/07 at San Bernardino County. According to the incident report, the nuclear gauge was taken to Southwest Calibration in San Bernardino for repair. After the repair, at about 5:30 pm, the field technician stopped at an automobile garage in San Bernardino to have the company truck tail light repaired. The nuclear gauge metal box was bolted close to the tail light access location and was asked by the shop technician to remove the box so they can repair the tail light. The metal box was placed on the side near the waiting room. Then, the technician went inside the waiting room. After the tail light was repaired, the technician went outside and did not find the nuclear gauge.
The technician called the RSO and left a message. The incident was reported to San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office (Police Report # 030705898) and an ad was placed in the 'SUN', San Bernardino newspaper for seven days.
RHB - South RAM office will investigate this incident.
5010 Number (Date Notified): 102207
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.