Live Grenade Brought to Santa Barbara Police Station
Santa Barbara Police cordoned off a section of the downtown area Tuesday after someone brought a Japanese grenade from World War II to the police station.
Officials said a local resident was cleaning out the garage and discovered a box filled with ammunition and the grenade.
Officers considered the grenade “live” because it still had the pin in it.
Police Captain David Whitham told NewsChannel 3 a member of the Santa Barbara County Bomb Squad safely retrieved the grenade and tucked it behind a concrete wall during the investigation.
The second and third floors of the police building on East Figueroa Street were evacuated as a precaution, and police had Figueroa Street between Santa Barbara and Garden streets cordoned off for two hours.
The area was back open by 1:00 pm.
No calls for service were missed by dispatchers who remained in the communications center in the basement of the building.
In the meantime, the Bomb Squad took to the grenade to the Tajiguas landfill, where it was safely disposed of.
If you find old ammunition in a garage, Whitham says, “especially vintage ammunition don’t pick it up. Don’t touch it. It’s often times unstable. It’s best to call 911 and get a response from emergency services and let us deal with it.”
