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It’s alive 

MONOCACY STATION, Pa. — This is no fish story: Two fishermen pulled a live military rocket out of the Schuylkill River. 

Michael Nagy and Jeremy Lloyd found the rusted, 2-foot-long rocket in a shallow area of the river Sunday and dragged it to shore, police said. The men then posed to take photographs with the explosive before driving it to police. 

“It was confirmed as an active military device, an RPG Rocket,” said West Pottsgrove police officer Steven Ziegler. “It had the firing pin still in it. That’s how we knew it was live.” 

The military-issue surface-to-air missile was designed to be launched out of a weapon, such as a bazooka, Ziegler said. The Montgomery County Sheriff Bomb Disposal Unit detonated the device at a remote location. 

It’s unclear how the missile ended up in the river. A similar explosive device was found in the Schuylkill River about six months ago, police said. That device had been discarded. 

Monocacy Station is about 40 miles northwest of Philadelphia. 

Big tax bill mistake 

MANHATTAN, Kan.— A mistake that caused the property value of a home to be inflated by $200 million has left local governments scrambling to refigure their budgets. 

Riley County Appraiser Sam Schmidt’s staff uncovered the error last week while preparing for next year’s valuations. The staff found the valuation on a single $59,500 property east of Kansas State University inadvertently had been changed to $200,059,000. 

The tax bill was never sent out, but Manhattan, Riley County and the local school district based their budget calculations on the erroneous valuation, which created a 6.5 percent overstatement of the value of property in the county. 

Now they are faced with fixing a shortfall that’s likely to reach at least $2.3 million. 

A 56-year delivery time 

LEBANON, Ind. — A package that sat in a hidden vault since 1945 has finally reached its intended recipient. 

Kenneth F. Perkins of Lebanon received a package last week containing after-shave lotion, talc and hair dressing. 

It was postmarked Dec. 13, 1945. 

Construction workers discovered Perkins’ package during July renovations at the federal courthouse in Indianapolis. 

The courthouse once housed the post office and when workers moved a shelf, they discovered the vault containing some undelivered mail, said Kim Yates, a U.S. Postal Service representative. 

Officials tracked down Perkins, now 79, through the military. The package was sent to him while he was serving in the Navy.