Hot Money: Radioactive Cash Stolen
November 8, 2004 Lithuanian officials have warned the country's 3.5 million citizens to be on the lookout for a missing radioactive US $100 bank note.
Officials in the former Soviet state say they do not know how the note became radioactive, but one theory is that it could have come from somewhere in eastern Europe that still has a high level of post-Chernobyl contamination.
It was discovered in September when it set off alarms at an airport checkpoint and was quarantined in a safe room.
But the bank note was reported missing - probably stolen - on Tuesday just before it was due to be destroyed.
The chief of Lithuania's radioactive substances security agency, Albinas Mastauskas, said the note was not potent enough to cause burns, but it could pose long-term health risks for children or pregnant women.
So are we looking at the release of radioactive loot around the country?
That gets today's "well that's weird" award.
Yeah, someone earlier posted a blurb about the radioactive $100 bill. I'm concerned it might be a much, much bigger enterprise. I suspect (on a hunch) not only was it radioactive but that it was counterfeit.
I am concerned that there might be hundreds of thousands.