A bomb was found washed up on a California beach on New Year’s Eve, thanks to stronger waves caused by recent storms that battered the state’s coastline in recent days, authorities said.
The Santa Cruz Sheriff’s office said the bomb was an “inert military ordnance” that was reported around 2 p.m. Sunday at Pajaro Dunes, just over 20 miles from Santa Cruz.
Travis Air Force Base personnel later identified and removed the explosive.
“After safely performing an on-site visual inspection and x-ray scan, the item was deemed free of explosives and safe to transport to Travis AFB,” a spokesperson for the base said. They determined that the item was a U.S. WWII era Navy practice bomb, model Mk 15, Mod 2.
A close-up of the “inert military ordnance” found on a California beach.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office
“It is currently being retained with Travis [Explosive Ordnance Disposal] and will remain in place to prevent future concerns,” the spokesperson added.
In a Monday Facebook post, the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s office announced that its bomb team had also responded to the incident.
“Every few years, we will see military ordnances wash up,” Ashley Keehn, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, told the Los Angeles Times. “We occasionally see sea flares uncovered. This washing up on shore goes to show the intensity of the high surf we saw this past week.”
