Tierrasanta Land Mine Was New Practice Device

An apparent land mine discovered near Tierrasanta Boulevard on Saturday turned out to be a new practice device never equipped with a charge, a U.S. Army official said.

Master Sgt. William Wilk, of the 70th Ordnance Detachment at Ft. Rosecrans in Point Loma, said the device was “brand new” and “just out of the packing crate.”

Used by Soldiers, Marines

He described it as a practice land mine, one of many in use by Army and Marine Corps units.

Stray ordnance has long been a major problem in the Tierrasanta area, which was carved out of part of Camp Elliott, a former Marine Corps training base. Scores of live shells have been discovered.

The issue was dramatized in December, 1983, when two neighborhood boys were killed when an abandoned shell they had been examining exploded.

How the practice mine arrived in the Tierrasanta canyon may well remain a mystery. It will be virtually impossible to trace the mine’s origins, the sergeant explained, because no lot number was on the device.

A pedestrian walking in a canyon near Tierra Santa Boulevard and La Cuenta Drive picked up the object shortly after 1 p.m., officials said. The man intended to deliver it to a fire station, but a police officer saw him walking with the mine and directed him to put it down while bomb experts were called.

The San Diego Fire Department’s bomb squad responded. Fire officials, determining there was no hazard, called in the Army ordnance unit, which removed the device and will dispose of it.