Bargersville, Ind.-Local farm supplier Roy Umbarger & Sons Inc. is beefing up its security following an incident late on April 21. Two anhydrous ammonia nurse tanks located separately on company property were tampered with, and the contents of one of the tanks was nearly fully released on this small rural community. Authorities report that there were no serious injuries, and only a few residents voluntarily left their homes. Assistant Police Chief Todd Bertram said a paramedic on the scene and a motorist driving by were treated at nearby hospitals. He said a lot of others were unharmed when they drove through the vapor cloud, which was controlled by a Franklin hazmat crew called in to spray down the area. “This was no theft (by meth-makers) because they wouldn’t be opening the tank valve three turns as was the case here,” Bertram suggested. “It almost emptied a whole tank.” He said a couple of days earlier a liquid clay tank was hit in the same manner, indicating both were targets of vandalism. Rowana Umbarger, wife of one of the owners, said from now on Umbargers will be keeping the tanks outside of town at the filling location and brought into town only for weighing. Surveillance cameras also will be installed. She said the fact that her husband, R. Martin Umbarger, is a National Guard major general and state adjutant general is a coincidence and had nothing to do with the incident. The possibility was suggested by a local newspaper columnist who wrote that “for the conspiracy theorists in the audience, (Umbarger’s military position) means that there could easily be a political connection to this vandalism.”
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