‘Rocket Man’ terrorizes drivers on Florida highway, bomb squad called in

ny post ^ | March 28, 2026 | Jeanne Erickson

[BenLurkin]

Florida Highway Patrol launched into high alert this week after a barrage of 911 calls from motorists who swore they’d just spotted a truck hauling a full payload of missiles down the highway.

“They were definitely concerned,” FHP Sgt. Steve Gaskins told The Post of the March 22 incident.

The situation escalated quickly when a trooper, already locked and loaded with a description of a blue pickup traveling along Interstate 4, spotted the vehicle.

Nipper, a longtime rocket enthusiast, explained to cops he’s part of local groups that regularly gather to have fun, put on exhibitions or teach kids about basic aeronautics.

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TOPICS: Hobbies; Local News
KEYWORDS:

[chrisser]

These officers definitely didn’t have my childhood.

[GingisK]

You and me both!

[GingisK]

One of them looks a lot like a sidewinder.

[Chickensoup]

I had a friend who loved rocketry.

I was just wondering the other day whether the hobby had died out or not... now there are drones.

[mythenjoseph]

One of the rockets had print on it indicating “so many pounds of explosives” Not to swift. Bomb squad area cordoned off the whole show. pathetic the initial officer couldn’t or not allowed to make a common sense determination that these were models. Everyone is afraid of their own shadow.....pussies.

[Paal Gulli]

The one with the red nose cone is an overscale model of the Estes Cherokee D with a simplified fin design.

[Zathras]

I had one of those.
Flew like heck!

[NewHampshireDuo]

I used to haul around a muzzle loading cannon on a carriage behind my car. This was in the ‘70s into the ‘90s. Nobody ever paid any real attention to it.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

[Robert DeLong]

These officers definitely didn’t have my childhood.

No, they were doing their job, by having bomb experts declare them to be non-lethal.

Had they just let them go, and they turned out to be lethal, they may not have been charged, but they woyuld have had to live with that knowledge for the rest of their lives, if they had been used to kill American citizens. This is no longer the times when we were playing with rockets. It was a safe nation back then.

Thanks to the Democrats, and RINOs, that is no longer the reality of this nation now.

[omni-scientist]

This was hobby of mine in my early teens in the 60's. I grew up in Miami and used to build Estes rockets then, but found few places to launch them. In our neighborhood, recovering the rockets was a problem involving going into other yards in our subdivision.

The best place we found was just west of Miami International Airport and the Palmetto expressway. Doubtful my rockets would reach high enough but I always waited until an approaching flight passed over to launch since we new we had at least a few minutes before the next flight came in.

[smokingfrog]

Hey, Mildred! Look at those ICBM’s in the back of that blue pickup truck!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

My Estes rocket kits never had decals like that.

[Fraxinus]

Nobody ever paid any real attention to it.

I somewhat doubt that. Did you ever have anyone tailgate you when you had the gun?

[Lurker]

I built one of those.

L

[Vendome]

Mine either

I liked the smell from rockets

[riverrunner]

Lived out in the country had plenty of fields to send up ours in

[paulcissa]

My take is that no one terrorized the drivers (bombastic headline), they terrorized themselves. Pussies all around.

When considering the Floriduh effect, most younger people have no idea that model rocketry is (or was) a thing. Might be time to trade the pickup truck for a van.

[Political Junkie Too]

For a moment, I thought Tiger was driving again!

-PJ