‘It was not inert.’ Someone left a mortar round in a Goodwill box, El Dorado sheriff says
Two bomb squads assisted the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office in handling a live military mortar shell that was left in a donation box at a Goodwill store in Placerville last week.
The mortar shell was found in the box Friday and disposed of without incident, the Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post Monday. No one was hurt.
“It was not inert,” the sheriff’s office flatly clarified in a reply to a user’s Facebook comment, informing others on what to do if they find a mortar shell that is inert.
The Roseville/Rocklin bomb squad and Beale Air Force Base explosive ordnance team assisted sheriff’s personnel in safely disposing of the ordnance, according to the post.
The sheriff’s Facebook post says items like mortar shells are found “frequently, most often when family members are cleaning up homes of veterans,” and urged citizens they to call local law enforcement if they find such a device.
There was no indication any arrests were made in Friday’s incident.
Correction: A previous version of this story said the Travis Air Force Base bomb squad responded.
This story was originally published July 29, 2019 at 12:26 PM.
