Health Department Recovers Missing Emergency Prep Trailer

POSTED: 6:08 pm MDT April 17, 2007

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The state Health Department has recovered an emergency preparedness trailer that was stolen more than two weeks ago.

An Albuquerque resident recently alerted police that the 40-foot trailer was parked in a vacant lot on the city's north side.

The trailer disappeared from a parking lot at Central New Mexico Community College sometime on March 31 or April 1.

Health officials said Tuesday that they have recovered a secure box of quarter-sized samples of plutonium, cesium and strontium.

Officials said the radioactive sources are small and don't pose a health threat. The materials are used to show emergency medical technicians and hospital workers the materials they could be exposed to during an emergency.