Old Bomb Forces Emergency Officials To Evacuate Tennessee Neighborhood

July 27, 2004
Emergency Management officials said that the suspected bomb looked like a rocket on a stand.
A junk collector brought an old military munition home Monday night, forcing the evacuation of about 30 homes in Cheatham County.

Emergency Management officials told News 2 that the suspected bomb looked like a rocket on a stand, measuring about 18" x 2' and 5" in diameter. It was picked up Monday by a scrap metal salvager. A bomb team was called in from the Highway Patrol. They turned the bomb over to the experts from Fort Campbell who brought an X-Ray machine. In the end, they determined there were no explosives in the device.

Cheatham Co. Emergency Management director Edwin Hogan said, "There was no way for us to tell. They tried with mirrors, but you could only see 2-3" up in it, so to be safe we wanted to X-Ray it. We had a site to detonate it. Fortunately, we didn't have to do that."

The bomb was taken back to Fort Campbell. Authorities are now trying to figure out where the scrap-metal salvager picked up the device.

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