Mysterious Item Washed Ashore Found to Be Practice Bomb

As waves crested upwards of 20 feet, pelting California’s coast over the New Year’s weekend, a mysterious WWII-era bomb washed ashore in Santa Cruz. USA Today reported that around 2:20 pm on Sunday, the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Office’s bomb team was called to the Pajaro Dunes, located between Santa Cruz and Monterey. There they discovered what they believed to be “an inert military ordnance,” or a practice bomb.

Due to the device’s significant decomposition, the bomb team was unable to verify whether or not it posed a lethal threat. They called in the Travis Air Force Base Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, who performed X-ray scans and visual inspections to determine that the bomb was inactive before carting it offsite.

According to officials, the device was identified as a WWII-era dummy bomb belonging to U.S. forces. It was taken back to Travis AFB, where it’s currently being stored.

"Every few years we will see military ordnances wash up,” Santa Cruz County sheriff's office spokesperson Ashley Keehn told USA Today. “We occasionally see sea flares uncovered [as well]. This ordnance washing up on shore goes to show the intensity of the high surf we saw in Santa Cruz County this past week."

Though the origin of the practice bomb is currently unknown, Instagram user @ray_parga762 shed a bit of light on how it might have ended up in the Pacific. 

"There is actually a pile of ordnance in the Monterey Bay. [They] used to drag up torpedos, mines, and the most recent I remember was a pile of 50BMG ammo about 15 or 20 years ago. The Navy had a range at Monterey airport up until the early '70s. They had an excess of 600,000 rounds of WWII 30.06 ammunition that was ordered to be dumped into the bay."

Officials urge caution and avoidance should you come across any items that appear to be military ordnances, such as bombs, grenades, and landmines. Even if they look old, the devices can still be active and might explode if moved or touched.