Live Military Flare Found In Package At O'Hare
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A live Vietnam era military "trip flare" – an incendiary device capable of reaching a temperature of nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit – was found in a package being shipped through O'Hare International Airport to Japan last week.
According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office in Chicago, the M49A1 Trip Flare, a Vietnam era Phosphorous-based incendiary device used as an early warning signal, was found in an outbound mail package at O'Hare on Thursday.
"It becomes illegal to transport because the individual was not licensed to export this type of technology," customs spokesman Brian Bell said. "Plus, it has a very severe risk of accidentally going off inside of the belly of an aircraft."
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The manifest for the shipment listed the device as a "military training dummie [sic]" valued at $55.
Bell said a woman in Missouri sold it online to a buyer in Japan and shipped it by mail through O'Hare.
"The seller actually explained to one of our officers that she brought it home from an estate sale and her husband and her looked at it and her husband said 'Well, I think it's a training dummy, I think it's safe,'" Bell said.
Customs officers and the Chicago Police bomb unit determined otherwise and the device was confiscated, deactivated and destroyed.
The M49A1 Trip Flare is used as a signaling device to provide early warning of infiltrating troops. The flare will provide a light intensity exceeding 35,000 candle power for approximately one minute and can reach a temperature of nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
