Police: Steel Cap Stolen In Northampton Has Cold War Ties

NORTHAMPTON, PA — Police in Northampton Township are looking into a potentially hazardous theft with ties to a Cold War-era missile site.

Township police were called Monday to investigate the theft of a rectangular steel cap located on the Northampton Township Civic Center grounds. A woman told officers she was walking her dog when she noticed the cap missing, exposing a roughly 20-foot deep hole.

The cap, it turns out, was used to seal an air vent on an old, underground missile silo that was once part of what was known as a Nike missile site.

The woman told police she walks her dog regularly in the area, off of Rt. 332, and believes the cap was stolen within the last two weeks or so. During their investigation, police say they found that someone had tried, unsuccessfully, to remove a second cap from another silo.

According to police, the cap is about 45 inches by 35 inches and had well worn yellow paint on it. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Stark at pstark@nhtwp.org or 215-322-6111.

Nike Base PH-07A was one of a dozen bases that once circled the Philadelphia area. Built in 1956, it was part of a system considered a last line of defense in the event of an invasion by the then-Soviet Union.

It housed 20 Ajax missiles, but was never upgraded to the more modern Hercules missile and was decommissioned in 1961, along with six other Philadelphia-area sites.