60-Year-Old Bomb Washes Ashore in Santa Cruz During Storm

Courtesy of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office

A bomb squad was called to a California beach on New Year’s Eve after officials discovered a 60-year-old bomb had washed ashore during recent storms.

California State Parks requested a bomb squad from the local sheriff’s office after receiving a report Dec. 31 of the bomb found in the sand at Pajaro Dunes, a beach located about 20 miles south of Santa Cruz.

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office bomb team responded at about 2:20 p.m., according to a sheriff’s spokeswoman Ashley Keehn.

The bomb is believed to be a “practice bomb” from the 1960s. The inactive device was typically filled with water and sand and used by the U.S. Navy for target practice.

The object washed ashore during last weekend’s storms that pummeled California’s coastline with monster waves and high tides.

“This ordnance washing up on shore goes to show the intensity of the high surf we saw in Santa Cruz County this past week,” Ms. Keehn told The Epoch Times in an email.

The sheriff’s office sees ordnance and other objects wash up along the shoreline every few years, she added.

The bomb team examined the bomb by taking an X-ray and determined it was inactive, according to the sheriff’s office.

Military officers at Travis Air Force Base, located about 110 miles north of Santa Cruz, collected the bomb because of its size and degraded state, according to Ms. Keehn.

“They removed it for future destruction,” she said.