The Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office this week cautioned residents after its bomb squad destroyed a homemade bomb, a military explosive and about 500 blasting caps found at three locations over eight days.
On June 22, deputies spotted a suspicious vehicle with an expired registration parked near the intersection of Mountain Ranch and Michael roads in Mountain Ranch. The deputies began to prepare for the vehicle to be towed, when they discovered a loaded handgun and what they believed was an improvised explosive device, The Sheriff’s Office announced in a news release Wednesday.
The sheriff’s bomb squad arrived at the scene and determined the device was a homemade improvised explosive device, and moved it to a safe location to detonate. Sheriff’s officials said tests on the device confirmed the presence of a high explosive.
Military RPG round at landfill
On June 23, workers at a landfill on Hunt Road in Milton called authorities to report they had found what they believed was live ordnance while sorting garbage. During the investigation, the bomb squad learned someone had thrown the unexploded ordnance out with trash and may have been in there for days, sheriff’s officials said.
The bomb squad determined the ordnance was a projectile or rocket from an rocket-propelled grenade launcher. Sheriff’s officials said the bomb squad safely destroyed the RPG round with a counter charge explosive in a remote location.
Residents should never assume ordnance found outside a military environment is safe, the Sheriff’s Office warned. The bomb squad has responded to dozens of calls involving military ordnance over the years.
Most military training ordnance is painted a certain color to indicate its use for training. Sheriff’s officials said it’s not uncommon for someone to claim ordnance is safe due to markings and color or to claim the ordnance is inert, but there is no way of knowing outside of a military environment.
Sheriff’s officials said the bomb squad has found dozens of pieces of military ordnance used as decor and even in local museums that turned out to be a live ordnance.
500 blasting caps found buried at construction site
On June 30, the bomb squad was called to a construction site just outside Groveland where blasting caps were found buried in the ground. The bomb squad found about 200 aging and degraded blasting caps, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The site was excavated, and the bomb squad discovered an additional 300 blasting caps. Sheriff’s officials said the bomb squad safely destroyed the blasting caps with a counter charge explosive at the site.
It was not uncommon in the past for someone in Calaveras County to go to a hardware store and buy dynamite and blasting caps for tree-clearing or ditch-digging with little to no restrictions on purchasing explosives, sheriff’s officials said
Explosives such as these were stored for years and sometimes forgotten until found by someone cleaning out an old building or rummaging through an old barn, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The bomb squad has responded to dozens of calls involving the discovery of old explosives or blasting caps.
Sheriff’s officials asked residents who suspect they found old explosives or blasting caps to not move them, and to call 911.
The three incidents from last month remained under investigation this week, and the Sheriff’s Office said there was not any further information available.
The Sheriff’s Office urged residents to call 911 if they find something believed to be an explosive or merely suspicious. The bomb squad, which responds to explosives-related incidents to neighboring jurisdictions in the region, is trained to handle found explosives, improvised explosive devices and suspicious packages.
The bomb squad, which responded to 19 incidents last year, also conducts post-blast investigations, including analysis and forensic study.
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