{"id":212762,"date":"2026-03-31T09:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/212762\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:23:14","slug":"bomb-squad-called-to-i-4-over-reports-of-missiles-on-florida-mans-truck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/212762\/","title":{"rendered":"Bomb squad called to I-4 over reports of missiles on Florida man\u2019s truck"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">TAMPA, Fla. \u2013 Earlier this month, troopers pulled over a truck along Interstate 4 after they noticed \u201cmissiles\u201d strapped to the back, according to the Florida Highway Patrol Tampa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">In an incident report, troopers said the incident happened on March 22, just after noon. At the time, the blue pickup truck was spotted heading east near Plant City.<\/p>\n<p>Ornamental rockets seen in the truck bed (Florida Highway Patrol)<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">After concerned citizens called in about the truck, a trooper pulled it over and spoke with the driver, identified as 69-year-old Michael Nipper, the report shows.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">But it turned out that these weren\u2019t really missiles at all, but rather plastic ornaments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">[BELOW: Here\u2019s what to know about Sanford\u2019s I-4 \u2018Dead Zone\u2019]<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cMichael then stated that the missiles are for show and (he) uses them at events&#8230;\u201d the report reads. \u201cMichael advised the missiles do not have any type of explosive material inside and use a small electric motor that controls the compulsion mechanism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">However, an imprint on one of the missiles stated \u201c15 lbs. of explosives,\u201d prompting the FHP to bring in the bomb squad, which ultimately found that the missiles were indeed not real.<\/p>\n<p>Troopers seen with the ornamental missiles along I-4 (Florida Highway Patrol)<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cAll was determined safe with a strong suggestion on how better to transport the articles!\u201d troopers declared.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">[BELOW: Woman bites Orlando officer to avoid being handcuffed, video shows]<\/p>\n<p>Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kiwhtN\">Get breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2013 Earlier this month, troopers pulled over a truck along Interstate 4 after they noticed \u201cmissiles\u201d&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,276,4569,4568,10784,2546,135,729],"class_list":["post-212762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-i-4","tag-interstate-4","tag-plant-city","tag-strange-florida","tag-tampa","tag-traffic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}