It may look like a tank, but it’s not a tank.

A Facebook picture posted Wednesday morning by Denver radio disc jockey Willie B., of a tracked vehicle with a “Jefferson County Sheriff” logo sitting on a flatbed trailer, quickly went viral.

“Uhhhhhh Damn..they gotta Tank!! I’m absolutely sure this is to protect us and serve us….right?” the 106.7 KBPI disc jockey wrote on his Facebook page.

The picture quickly spread across Facebook and garnered 1,746 shares before jumping to Reddit and other sites, with commentators up in arms about a tank in Jefferson County.

“We can buy tanks, only our Jeffco schools our youth, Have to have a bake sale or some other fund raiser to fund computers and books. Great job guys,” wrote one Facebook commentator.

“They shouldn’t be buying any military hardware, are they implying the state is at war with its citizens?” wrote a Reddit user.

Even though it has tracks similar to a tank, it’s actually a 1976 M113-A1 Armored Personnel Carrier that has been on loan to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office from the Department of Defense since 2005, said sheriff’s office spokesman Mark Techmeyer.

“We’ve had it for nine years now and have been very transparent with it,” Techmeyer said. “We took it to a middle school career fair yesterday … I don’t know where that particular picture came from but we’ve had a lot of photos of the vehicle on our website over the years.”

The most likely use of the vehicle is in active shooter situations where deputies can be transported safely to a barricaded house, Techmeyer said, or used to transport a suspected bomb.

“There’s no offensive capabilities at all; it’s purely defensive,” Techmeyer said. “We paid nothing for it and when we’re done we’ll return it to the Department of Defense.”

He added the vehicle has been used “on several occasions” in active shooter situations.

Austin Briggs: 303-954-1729, abriggs@denverpost.com