Hand Grenades, Mortars Bring Bomb Squad to RBPD

Officers cleared out an area near Redondo Beach City Hall and the main library Saturday after someone brought two boxes of ammunition, including a pair of grenades and two inert mortar rounds, to the Redondo Beach Police Department, authorities said.

According to RBPD Sgt. Shawn Freeman, the woman found the ammunition boxes when she was cleaning out her deceased father's attic.

"(She) brought them down to the police station, and in going through them … there was an inert hand grenade," Freeman said. He did not believe that she knew the inert grenade and a replica grenade were in the containers. 

The green ammunition boxes contained multiple rounds of World War II-era ammunition, a knife, a drilled-out grenade, a replica of a WWII pineapple grenade and launcher, four drilled-out 50-caliber ammunition rounds, and two inert mortar rounds, Freeman said.

Upon discovery of the grenades, officers evacuated the immediate area, closed the front entrance of the library, as well as the parking lots, and called the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Bomb Squad.

The bomb squad "determined the grenades … were either inert or replicas," Freeman said. Police have stored the ammunition and will destroy it.

"It's common that people bring down the ammunition to us, especially with someone that's passed away," Freeman said. 

Nevertheless, he advised residents that may find ammunition while cleaning out a dead relative's home not to bring the ammunition to the police station as a safety measure.

"If (the ammunition) was live, who knows what could set it off," Freeman explained. "Call us out there rather than bringing it to the front of the station."

The police department can be reached at 310-379-2477.