I just heard on our Channel 7 News, http://www.wsvn.com/ that a tanker truck for hazardous materials was stolen yesterday from the area of NW 74 ST and NW 78 AV here in Miami. They didn't say whether it was carrying anything, and I have not been a able to find a story at any of our tv stations or papers.

The area is near where I work, not that that means anything. That would be to the northeast of Miami International Airport.

it's curious that the story is not available anywhere on the net that I can find. perhaps it will be posted later on.

Our other local stations did not have news on this morning when this was aired. one is stuck on the Wimbledon tennis games. I missed the others as they were on earlier.

I am also considering the idea that the story is being suppressed now so as not to alarm the community. Not everyone watches channel seven since they tend to sensationalize the news a lot.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2002

Answers

The only thing on the news here (deservedly) is Ted Williams' passing.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2002

They did locate the tractor part, not far from our house on the turnpike. I heard this on the five thirty news. The trailer is still missing, and was full of corrosive items, such as ingredients for cleaners and stuff like that. They said none of it could be used to cause an explosion.

I wonder if they ever watched McGyver...

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2002

Well, if it's full of claners you know I didn't steal it.

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2002

After much searching...

Lin k

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/3609237.htm

Posted on Sat, Jul. 06, 2002

Trailer with toxic cargo stolen

Medley police say hazardous cleaning solvents are aboard

BY TERE FIGUERAS tfigueras@herald.com

The theft of a truck trailer stocked with almost a ton of hazardous and highly concentrated cleaning solvents has prompted Medley police to issue a nationwide warning.

These are ''very caustic and toxic substances,'' said Detective Jeanette Said, spokeswoman for Medley police.

The trailer and the attached truck cab were stolen from a fenced loading lot near Northwest 78th Street and 74th Avenue on Thursday. A gate lock securing the lot had been cut, police said.

Police found the cab ditched on the side of Florida's Turnpike in Cutler Ridge -- detached from the white utility trailer that carried the concentrated industrial and household cleaning chemicals.

Medley issued a national bulletin for law enforcement and fire rescue agencies -- including Miami-Dade fire rescue's hazardous materials team -- shortly after the break-in at the Medley lot was discovered late Thursday.

''Mostly for officer safety,'' Said said, adding that the department worried that police pulling over a stolen trailer would not be aware of the potential danger.

The major risk: contact with the undiluted chemicals, said Jeff Hackman, Miami-Dade fire spokesman.

''These are not explosives, or pose a vapor threat like something like a pesticide would,'' Hackman said. ``But these are highly abrasive solvents that can cause pretty serious chemical burns.''

Worries that the contents of the missing trailer spilling into water supplies are minimal, he said.

''It would be more diluted and would pollute the water, but there are tests that would detect that type of thing immediately,'' he said.

Hackman said the county's hazardous materials unit reviewed the shipping paperwork for the tractor and trailer, registered to a Southwest Miami-Dade man, and found them to be in order.

``Medley did a good thing in letting us know ahead of time what we're dealing with he said. ``And if anyone sees this trailer, let someone know.''

Anyone with information on the trailer -- which has a damaged side and the Florida tag C4629L -- should call Medley police at 305-883-2047.

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2002

I made a note of this, Barefoot. I'll add it to the Odd Events page on the next update, which will be soon. Geez. Something else loose.

I also saw a thread on TB2K that some posters had observed police and white vans on overpasses along several Highways in the NW. It was further speculated that the vans held radiation detecting equipment and that they were watching trucks.

Now I ask you: if you were moving a huge nuke, wouldn't you move it on the back roads? I imagine a Pepsi truck or something like that on a three-lane highway wouldn't get a second glance.

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2002

I doubt a huge nuke is what they search for. A small one, or a small bomb, perhaps.

A saying comes to mind: 'Hide in plain sight.'

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2002

"Hide in plain sight . . . " Yeah, good point, Barefoot. I keep thinking about that when I see the UPS, Fed-X, and Pepsi trucks parked around gov't buildings. I keeping thinking that someday there will come a time that access becomes more restricted, more monitored. Right now, they search the people there on business more carefully than the service employees and courriers.

-- Anonymous, July 08, 2002

that's a good point about the delivery trucks around gov centers. They may have to decide that deliveries at specific times on specific days are needed.

Or, they have their own guy[s] that go and collect the items from the dispersal centers for those various delivery agencies.

I have it on good authority that a specific delivery service here in Miami has to make sure they have done all their other deliveries before they go to our nuke plant. The truck is searched most carefully before entering the plant site. If they had a full trailer it would have to be emptied of all the other packages in order to get in.

I also have a thought about those trucks around the gov sites. Perhaps some of them are undercover surveilance vans? Preferably by the FBI, of course...

-- Anonymous, July 08, 2002

Found the other truck story.

Posted on Tue, Jul. 09, 2002,

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/3624978.htm

In Florida

LAKELAND - A tractor-trailer with $2 million to $3 million worth of pharmaceuticals was hijacked here early Monday and cleaned out before it was deserted in Palm Beach County.

The truck's driver, Yaniel Leal, 24, was accosted at a Dunkin' Donuts by two armed men who taped his hands and ankles and put him in the sleeper portion of the truck's cab, the Palm Beach County sheriff's office said.

Leal was driven around for about an hour until the suspects unloaded the truck's narcotics and pharmaceuticals.

The suspects left Leal and the truck at a gas station on Hypoluxo Road about 30 minutes later, sheriff's officials said.

Leal was not harmed.

The drugs in the shipment were bound for hospitals, drugstores and supermarkets in Miami-Dade County.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2002