Something like this has happened before- the Goinia accident…

The radiation source in the Goinia accident was a small capsule containing about 93 grams (3.3 oz) of highly radioactive caesium chloride (a caesium salt made with a radioisotope, caesium-137) encased in a shielding canister made of lead and steel. The source was positioned in a container of the wheel type, where the wheel turns inside the casing to move the source between the storage and irradiation positions.[1]

Lowlights:

On September 13, 1987, the guard in charge of daytime security, Voudireino da Silva, did not show up to work, using a sick day to attend a cinema screening of Herbie Goes Bananas with his family.[7] That same day, “scavengers” Roberto dos Santos Alves and Wagner Mota Pereira illegally entered the partially demolished facility, found the teletherapy unit - which they thought might have some scrap value - and placed it in a wheelbarrow, taking it to Alves’s home,

A scrapyard later:

That night, the owner, Devair Alves Ferreira, who lived next door to the scrapyard, went into the garage and noticed the blue glow from the punctured capsule. Thinking the capsule’s contents were either valuable or even supernatural, he immediately brought it into his house. Over the next three days, he invited friends and family to view the strange glowing substance and offered a reward to anyone who could free it from the capsule.

It just gets sordid from then on out