Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Radioactive cat mistaken for bomb

A US driver was stopped on suspicion of being a terrorist after his radioactive cat was mistaken for a bomb. Anti-terror police using specialist radiation detectors on motorway traffic flagged down the man.

But a search of his car revealed only his cat who had undergone radiotherapy for cancer three days earlier.

Deputy chief border agent Joe Giuliano revealed details of the incident to a meeting of San Juan Islanders, reports the Seattle Times. "Vehicle goes by at 70mph," he said. "Agent is in the median, a good 80 feet away from the traffic. Signal went off and identified an isotope."

The agent raced after the car, pulling it over not far from the monitoring spot. The agent questioned the driver, then searched the car.

"Turned out to be a cat with cancer that had undergone a radiological treatment three days earlier," Giuliano said.

"That's the type of technology we have that's going on in the background. You don't see it. If I hadn't told you about it, you'd never know it was there."

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