Live Ammo Found in House; Bomb Squad Responds
The Sheriff’s Department bomb squad, U.S. Marine Corps personnel and Orange police officers were called to a downtown real estate office Tuesday after an agent there found a live military round in a vacant home and brought it to work with her, police said.
The bomb squad removed the 75-millimeter “self-propelled military round” from a Century 21 real estate office in the 400 block of East Chapman Avenue. The device was destroyed at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.
According to police, the agent found the round in a vacant Orange house and brought it to her office about 11 a.m.. Bomb squad personnel were already at the office when police were called.
Sgt. Gary Zimmerman, an El Toro Marine Corps spokesman, said the military responded to secure the area and “protect public life and property.”
Bomb squad officials used a robot to remove the live round about 1:25 p.m., Zimmerman said. It was loaded into a special trailer and taken to the El Toro Explosive Ordinance Disposal Range, he said.
Zimmerman said the device is “not a United States military round,” but its origins were unclear Tuesday. Zimmerman did not know what kind of damage the device could have caused if it had exploded.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
