BRAD HORN/Nevada Appeal Carson City sheriff's deputy Don Gibson stands next to a case of three RPG practice round missiles found in a unit at a Carson City storage facility on Saturday.
Undercover agents with the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms along with members of the SWAT team and Tahoe-Douglas Bomb Squad descended upon East Fifth Street Storage around noon Saturday after a Nevada Department of Transportation employee stumbled across a wooden crate containing three rocket-propelled grenades, or RPGs, while sorting through the property for an upcoming auction.
The RPGs, stamped apparently with the date, "1952," appeared to be practice rounds. However, all safety measures were used as the rounds were loaded into a fire department truck and taken to an undisclosed location.
The storage faculty was bought by the state with the intention of tearing it down as part of construction for the new Interstate 580 freeway.
"Apparently, the renter of the unit didn't pay his bills," said Carson City Sheriff's deputy Don Gibson, "and his property was part of what was going to go up at auction."
It is unknown who the RPGs belonged to and why they were being stored.
FBI agents had cleared the scene and taken over the investigation, giving no comment on the weapons.
The Nevada Department of Transportation auction has been postponed until further notice.
Contact Peter Thompson at pthompson@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1215.
