Hundreds of Rockets Left For Anyone to Grab

I work in Atlanta, GA for the Teachers Retirement of Georgia. It's a good honorable place to work, as we make sure they the pension system for teachers works properly and all funds owed and collection go in and out with as few problems as possible.

You might imagine my surprise this morning when I got into work (around 7 A.M. EST) and saw a train full of what appears to be military canisters sitting idly on the tracks. From the second floor of our underground garage I saw this:



Needless to say I was a bit spooked. How long had these been sitting here? The tracks that run by my building have things shipped on them quite often, but I hadn't seen any military stuff yet. Doesn't mean it was bad, just odd.

So, I decided to shoot some video with my phone since I didn't know how long the stuff would be there and it was kinda neat to look at:

Video 1

You can hear me comment on the fact that these are just "chillin" next to my building. I could clearly read "CLASS A" explosives on the side of the containers, but didn't yet know what was inside of them.

I went a little higher for a better look. I got up to the top of the parking garage and took some more video. Now I could see just how many there were... and, I from my new vantage point I could read what was on the containers.

Video 2

"Rocket Ammnuition Class A Explosive Ammunition" was painted on the top of one of the containers, and I could easily see that they were stacked 16 to a crate, with two crates per car, and there were at least 100 cars...I mean this stretched on for over a 1/4 mile.

At this point I started to get a little concerned, as did the others I work with who saw this, because we realized that no one is guarding this stuff. I mean, I can understand it something happened and the train was left there overnight and people were watching it. I can't understand how ROCKET AMMNUNITION is just left laying around in the middle of on of the most populated cities in the US without anyone noticing.

We called DHS, who thought we were joking at first. One of them asked, "How do you know that its rocket ammnuition?"

Jim, a former military man I work with responded, "Well, we're reading the side of the containers. I can go down there any open one up to check if you want, since there's no one looking at them." That got their attention. We sent them an image via e-mail and shortly thereafter the chopper arrives...this is about 11:30.

Video 3

The chooper was flying really low, although you can't really tell form the footage. At one point it was so low that I looked right at the pilots face and motioned as if to say "what the heck is this all about?" The pilot motioned for me to move back, which I did, since, you know, he had a cannon or something on the side of the chopper. I comment in the video on what Scott, another former military person, said he thinks it might be, but he's since said he was probably wrong since it looked too big.

I went to the 4th floor of our building around 12:30 to take some more videos.

Video 4

THe people up there were lined against the windows looking down. Still, after over 5 hours, the stuff wasn't moving and the only personal looking over it was a helicopter.

Around 2:00 they came and got the stuff, I was in a meeting so I didn't see it. When I got back to my desk it was gone.

Needless to say, I'm concerned over the fact that this stuff was just sitting there, maybe overnight, for anyone to grab. Sure, they may have not know what to do with it, but what's to say that some kid doesn't climb on something he shouldn't and cause a big problem.

-O

[edit on 25-5-2006 by The Big O]

[edit: fixed image url]

[edit on 5/26/2006 by 12m8keall2c]

This has to have something to do with the railroad stoppage this morning. Most of the rail traffic on the East Coast was screwed up. From the looks of the photos and video those were 2.75 inch Hydra rockets. Probably heading for Savannah for loading on board a ship. The original plan probably had the train not stopping anywhere so there was assumed to be little need for security.

[edit on 25-5-2006 by JIMC5499]

There was no train we saw, just rail cars.

Good stuff, news worthy to considering, this type of thing shouldnt be happening.. considering the current situation we are in these days.. kinda sad actualy.

The question isnt why was it there, but rather, why didnt they know it was there, and why did it take you guys calling them to get anything done about it..

[edit on 25-5-2006 by C0le]

You know, we thought it was news worthy too... or would at least help in getting it away from the building. But when someone called WSB TV they were told "we're aware of the situation and don't think it's news worthy."

Since no one had yet been shot, killed, or mugged it wasn't news. Their top story at the time was that a small kitten had lost a paw and a piece of it's tale. No beef with kittens, but this seemed more important.

-O

Wow...
if kids are the same these days, as in my younger days, then there is already a black market for these puppys in your neighborhood...

if it was in a public area (no fence), and was sitting on some "abandoned" railcars...
the gang from my old neighborhood, would have helped themselves in seconds... (their average IQ was around 70)

Good catch... that could have been a bad thing indeed...

Originally posted by The Big O
But when someone called WSB TV they were told "we're aware of the situation and don't think it's news worthy."

Based on that statement I would think they were perhaps aware of it after listening to a police scanner. My guess is there were police watching it from the ends which you could not see.

Did you try and get a close up look where you could see the ends of the train?

Nicely done, good thread.

Anybody wanna go halvesies on a crate of those bad boys?

Considering we won't hear anything about this on the news (at least I have heard anything about this yet) what about drudge.

Couldn't hurt sending him your stuff.

www.drudgereport.com...

Spiderj

he helicopter flying aboe it would have noticed anyone as it could cover the perimeter in about 30 second intervals (or longer). However, we saw no police activity, at all.

I have other video shots I couldn't get transfered right form my phone that shows at least the end, or the start, which was just to the left of where my video and pictures were shot from.

We saw no police, at all, and I work for the State of Georgia, in a state owned building...someone so much as sneezes and cops come check it out. Nope, nothing...not until the chopper. It was as if they left if there and hoped no one would notice before they were able to come pick it up.

Two peole from my department went to get coffee at one point and crossed the tracks down near the other end of the rail cars and said, nothing was there but the chopper flying around over head.

If I can get the other videos transfered tomorrow I will. I don't ahve the cable for my phone though and have to use someones minSD from their phone, put it in my phone, transfer it, put the minSD in their phone, and then upload that to our compters at work. Its a royal pain to do.

-O

You would be surprised at what is left setting on rail sidings every day. I'm guessing that the locomotive might have gone for fuel while it waited for the tracks to clear. I am still surprised that the cars didn't at least have tarps over the crates.

This might have been the cause of it.
Train SNAFU

That might be the reason...but for some reason this just reeks of negligence.

I just can't believe that there wasn't at least a cop or something there. I mean, the things sat there for hours before the chopper arrived.

-O

Originally posted by The Big O
That might be the reason...but for some reason this just reeks of negligence.

I just can't believe that there wasn't at least a cop or something there. I mean, the things sat there for hours before the chopper arrived.

-O

Sometimes the best security is no security. This might be why the television station didn't put out anything about it. If the person who posted this hadn't recognized it for what it was, who would have known.

Great post!!

"You have voted The Big O for the Way Above Top Secret award. You have one more vote left for this month"

yeah, sometimes the government inneficiencies scare me and if it wasnt for caring citizens, like you, calling DHS, military grade rockets could of landed in someone's hands.

on a side note, I wonder if these are heading for Iraq....

I don't know... maybe the big orange "Explosives" triangles on the rail cars, or the fact that in big white letters it said "Rocket Ammunition" might let people in on what was going on. It did say "Do Not Drop" which I found funny.

If those hadn't been on it, maybe yes, no one would ahve known, but with that sort of stuff sticking out it's hard for me to accept the "no one would have known." It looked military to me at first glance, and I'm by no means experianced with military stuff outside of Tom Clancy video games.

-O

Wow, that's shockingly bad. I mean, some idiot with fireworks or just a bad temper could ahve causes some serious damage. What about the odd malicious passerby? I mean, myself, I'd be tempted to grab a few rockets for novelty purposes, much less resale value.

Big O, gave you a way above.

DE

Too bad I missed it, I could use some rockets.

Not too long now till the Fourth of July, some HVAR's could really liven things up

just for the hell of it i would have walked down that 4th of a mile with a air rifle. the real ones.

or stood somewhere an aim at them in front of large crowds



OR
shoot them with a real gun at night an watch the fireworks

Just as the DHS thought it was a joke, I'm sure the media people did as well. Some thing like this should not have gone over as it did.

TBO, you have yourself an exclusive, and on ATS of all places! Good job, and hope those videos can be edited into one vid.

This is a serious security breach, as most could imagine. Not good for a post 9/11 America...

TBO, by the way, in video 4. The lady talking in the beginning, does she call it a -
"intelligence blube"? Sounds like an older lady, or English nanny, and what was that kid "wondering why"? Is he/she wondering why they are sitting, like every one else, did he/she just repeat what was being said?

[edit on 26-5-2006 by ADVISOR]

She works on the 4th floor in our Retirement Services area and had been doing her work actually, and she waasn't sure what all the excitement was about.

I don't know specifically what she said, but I don't think it had to do with "intelligence." There are no older English ladies on the 4th, just some hilarious older black women, so who knows what sort she might have said. Seriously, they are some of the funniest people I've ever met.

I don't know about the "wonder why" sound bite. Everyone at the office was "wondering why" these things were sitting around, unguarded, so i'm sure it was a comment to that effect.

At any rate, it did concern me a lot that in this supposed "Time of Terrorism" or whatever that these things were just sitting there. As someone else posted, what's to say a gang didn't come ant take one. I mean, it doesn't take a lot to read the word "Explosive" or "Ammunition."

This is a heavily populated area too. I'm going to go to Google Maps later today and get a shot so you guys can see where the tracks run, and where my building is.

-O

[edit on 26-5-2006 by The Big O]

Map shots...

Here are some shots from Goole Maps to give you an idea of where this went down.

First, here is my building in relation to the tracks:



Here is a shot of my building and the tracks in relation to I-75:



This is what freaked me out the most. Someone could have grabbed one of these and been on the highway in a short amount of time. I-75 is maybe 100-300 yards from my building.

Finally, you can see an overhead of how far the rail cars stretched and their relation to nearby homes:



As I mentioned, this being in the metro Atlanta area, right near downtown and a bunch of high density housing, makes me wonder what else might be left laying around here that's even worse.

-O

[edit on 26-5-2006 by The Big O]