Truck carrying radioactive equipment stolen from in northern Alberta city

12 hours ago

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5golJRdubhMmtAGe5VWXIfDAY_2Xg

FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. - A truck carrying radioactive equipment was stolen this weekend after the unlocked vehicle was left running outside a hotel in Fort McMurray.

"When the driver came back to find the vehicle, it was gone," RCMP Cpl. Sean Maxwell explained Sunday.

"It's nothing that doesn't happen here or in big cities this time of year ... people leave their vehicles running with the doors unlocked and a crime of opportunity happens.

"The difference in this case is that this vehicle is an oilfield vehicle that contains some radioactive materials in the back for doing some seismic work."

Maxwell declined to say which company owned the Ford F-350, licence plate H04411, but asked the public to be on the lookout for the vehicle.

"As it sits right now with the way the material is contained and sealed, it poses no threat to people at all. It's just if someone ends up tampering with it ... radiation can certainly harm human beings."

Maxwell said the radioactive equipment is contained within a sealed box that has warning stickers on it.

He stressed that police believe it was a crime of opportunity and the vehicle was not targetted.

"It's a priority ... to try and locate the vehicle for public safety," Maxwell said, adding that federal regulators have been notified as a formality.

Last year, a database compiled by The Canadian Press showed that dozens of radioactive devices have disappeared over the last five years, including those that are stolen from cars, disappear from construction sites and fall off trucks.

In one such incident, a smash-and-grab crew in Red Deer, Alta., played hot potato with a radioactive device after stealing a trailer containing the dangerous item.

Other cases have included a Quebec inspection firm that has lost six nuclear gauges to thieves in the last three years, and a radioactive tool that was turned in by an honest citizen after it fell out of a truck making a right-hand turn in Peterborough, Ont.

Ontario and Quebec were the hot spots, with 18 incidents each, according to reports filed with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.