Missing Missiles Are Recovered in Texas

A truck driver and the four dummy Air Force missiles he had been carrying were found 300 miles apart on Friday, a day after the tractor-trailer vanished from Pentagon computer screens that had been tracking it.

The driver, Ronald D. Coy of Middletown, Ohio, put up no resistance and was unarmed when he was found at a truck stop in the town of Orange, Texas, near the Louisiana line, FBI agent Robert Loosle said.

Coy, 42, was arrested and charged with wire fraud. He was due to be arraigned today before a federal magistrate in Beaumont, Texas.

Coy’s intentions were not immediately known. Nor was it clear whether he was even authorized to haul weapons for the military.

The Air Force said the AGM-130 guided missiles weren’t equipped with working warheads or explosives and posed no risk to the public. The devices, each worth about $150,000, carry infrared and laser guidance equipment allowing pilots to fly attack patterns and get computerized data.

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The missiles were recovered in Ranger, Texas, 110 miles west of Dallas. “We believe the crates are still sealed and intact,” said Air Force spokesman Maj. Rob Koon.

The containers, marked “transformer,” had been left at a fenced-in lumber yard Wednesday, Ranger Police Chief Don Enix said. “The truck driver told them he had bald tires and that the floor of his trailer had some problems, so he had to get that fixed,” he said.

The missiles had been picked up at a Boeing Co. plant in Duluth, Ga., and were supposed to be taken to Cannon Air Force Base in Clovis, N.M., for use in air defense exercises.

The truck was last seen heading in the wrong direction about 500 miles from its destination. It had been carrying a tracking beacon and was being monitored by satellite until it vanished from computer screens Thursday, authorities said. On Friday, the FBI confirmed it issued an alert for Coy.

Another truck, this one carrying machine guns and mortars to Camp Pendleton, was reported missing in central Texas on Thursday but turned up hours later after the driver’s company credit card was rejected at an El Paso truck stop. The company had canceled the card in hopes that the driver would call.

The Pentagon said the rig’s tracking beacon had merely failed, and the driver didn’t know he was being sought.