Someone stumbled into something a little odd over the weekend on a Ventura, California beach: an unexploded round from the 1950s. After a careful inspection, officials found that it was live, so they made the decision to blow it up on the sand.
“The Sheriff’s Bomb Squad and Navy EOD unit examined the ordnance and determined the Super Bazooka round still contained live explosives and was too dangerous to transport,” the Sheriff’s Department bomb squad explained in a social media post.
The round was discovered directly in front of Lifeguard Tower 14 at Mugu State Beach, and the section of the beach along with a part of the Pacific Coast Highway was temporarily closed while they dealt with it. For a long time, that stretch of sand was off-limits to the public, as it served as a training facility for the U.S. military. Now, however, it’s open to all. That old training facility was likely how the round got there in the first place.
“As tides change and sands erode over time,” the department explained, “it is common for military ordnance to reveal itself at this location.”
It should go without saying that if you find a anything bomb-like on a beach, you should leave it alone, but even still, authorities thought it was worth reminding the public that fooling around with found explosive ordnances is not a good idea.
“You will NOT be able to tell if the item is inert just by looking at it,” the department warned, “no matter how rusted or deteriorated it may be.”
The round came from a weapon called an M20, or more commonly (and awesomely) known as the Super Bazooka. It was an anti-tank rocket launcher that was made at the end of the second World War and was pretty dang effective at doing its job during the Korean War.
