Authorities in Washington state have reported that a dilapidated rocket discovered in a resident's garage is an inactive nuclear missile.

On a recent Wednesday, a military museum in Ohio alerted Bellevue city police about an unconventional donation proposal they had received.

Subsequently, the police dispatched a bomb squad to the potential donor's residence.

Reflecting on the unusual situation, law enforcement remarked, citing Elton John's renowned song "Rocket Man," that they anticipate it will be quite sometime before encountering a similar scenario again.

In an official statement, authorities clarified that the object is indeed a Douglas AIR-2 Genie (previously designated as MB-1), an unguided air-to-air rocket engineered to accommodate a 1.5 kt W25 nuclear warhead.

However, it was confirmed that no warhead was affixed, ensuring there was never a risk to the local populace.

Seth Tyler, a spokesperson for the Bellevue Police Department, informed BBC News on Friday that the device was essentially a fuel tank intended for rocket propulsion.

He called the event "not serious at all".

"In fact, our bomb squad member asked me why we were releasing a news release on a rusted piece of metal," he said.

The call to police came from the National Museum of the US Air Force near Dayton, Ohio.

The man, who does not wish to be identified and is "extremely irritated" by the media coverage, "was not expecting a call from us", Mr. Tyler said, saying it seems the museum did not warn him they would be reporting his donation offer.

"He was gracious enough to let us have a look at it and we determined that it was safe," he said.

Officials never suspected that a nuclear warhead might be present, meaning there was no need for mass evacuations in the city of 150,000 people 10 miles (16km) east of Seattle.

The man told police that the rocket belonged to a neighbour who had died and was originally purchased from an estate sale.

Police ultimately deemed the item an "artefact with no explosive hazard".

"Because the item was inert and the military did not request it back, police left the item with the neighbour to be restored for display in a museum."

According to the Seattle Times, the rocket was used by the US and Canada during the Cold War.

The first and only live firing of the Genie rocket was in 1957, according to the newspaper, and production of it ended in 1962.

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