Homes Evacuated in Grenade Scare

One corner of a gated community was cordoned off Sunday afternoon as police spent nearly four hours examining what turned out to be a dummy hand grenade.

The device was left on a trash bin at Oyster Place Way and Moby Dick Lane in a neighborhood of townhomes.

“It wasn’t like it had fallen there, or accidentally left there,” said Oxnard Police Det. Terry Burr. “It was left there on purpose.”

A resident found the device, thought it looked real and called police. Further examination of the hand grenade showed that it was hollowed out and not lethal, Burr said.

At 11:30 a.m., police officers, the Sheriff’s Department’s bomb squad, an Oxnard bomb investigator and a fire engine responded to the scene.

After examining the device with a remote robot that carries a camera, the bomb squad determined it was inert, Burr said. Around 3 p.m., the device was removed for further investigation.

Burr said the device was the shell of a real hand grenade, which he will examine for serial numbers he hopes will lead police to its origin.

Three houses near the trash bin were evacuated, Burr said.

Oxnard police have responded to more than a dozen bomb threats and reports of suspicious packages or explosive devices in the past 14 months, Burr said. None of the devices exploded.