Cold War Era Missile, Designed To Carry Nuclear Weapon, Discovered In Civilian Garage

When your garage typically houses tools, discarded items, or everyday belongings, the last thing you’d expect to find is a Cold War-era missile. However, one Washington D.C. resident experienced just that when he ventured into his deceased neighbour’s garage, discovering a fully-fledged missile.

In Bellevue, Washington, on Thursday, bomb squad members were summoned to inspect components of a military-grade missile found in a resident’s garage. Authorities later confirmed that the fragment was safe and inactive in a news statement on Friday, though parts of the complete missile, such as the warhead, were notably absent. The curious incident began when the police in Bellevue received a call from an Air Force museum in Dayton, Ohio. The museum informed them that a resident had offered to donate a missile belonging to his deceased neighbour.

The relic missile was identified as a Douglas AIR-2 Genie by the bomb squad, designed to carry a 1.5 kg W25 nuclear warhead as an unguided air-to-air rocket. In a statement, the police noted, “Because the item was inert and the military did not request it back, police left the item with the neighbour to be restored for display in a museum.”

The resident, tasked with overseeing his neighbour’s estate, including the garage, did not know about the missile until he conducted an inspection. The police revealed that the neighbour had originally acquired the missile from an estate sale. Officer Seth Tyler, a spokesperson for the Bellevue Police Department, stated that attempts to contact the neighbour’s family were unsuccessful and out of respect for privacy, the Bellevue man’s identity was not disclosed.

Boeing, the aerospace company, confirmed that the AIR-2 Genie was the first nuclear-armed air-to-air weapon ever created. The sole live firing of a nuclear Genie occurred in 1957, the year of its official launch. It served as a potent interceptor missile during the Cold War, employed by both the US and Canada. The rocket’s development commenced in 1954 and continued until 1962, resulting in the production of one thousand Genie rockets during that period.