Garages in Florida can hold all kinds of retiree booty, and one of the stranger examples required a bomb team in Alachua County.
A man cleaning the garage of a deceased relative found a live 30-millimeter round capable of stopping a tank.
“He loaded it up and brought it to the sheriff’s office (in Gainesville),” the Alachua County Sheriff said in an Oct. 31 Facebook post.
“Most of the time, we get sent to emergencies. Today, it came to us. … The sheriff’s office reminds citizens to not transport live ordinance.”
Bomb team members rallied outside the building to gently haul the round to “a secure storage bunker until it can be turned back over to the military,” officials told McClatchy News in an email.
It is believed to be from the Vietnam War era and was likely used in a “Gatling gun on the front of the A-10 aircraft,” officials said.
There’s no clear explanation why it ended up in a garage, but it is not common for souvenirs of war to end up in the backpacks of military personnel.
It’s considered unsafe, and weapons experts do not recommend hauling such discoveries around, even to the sheriff’s office.
“Please, if you find anything like that or any other military looking ordinance leave it in place and call us,” sheriff’s office officials said.
“We will respond to the scene and render it safe or safely remove it. We don’t want you trying to transport it. If that shell would have rolled around in the person’s vehicle and the primer was struck it could have been a catastrophe.”
The sheriff’s office added that having its own bomb team “is a glorious asset.”
Gainesville is in North Florida, about 70 miles southwest of Jacksonville.
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