Authorities are looking for the person whose donation to a Wisconsin Goodwill last week included ammunition and a live explosive device, kicking off a bomb scare and evacuations of the area.
Employees of the thrift store in the city of Janesville outside of Madison made the startling discovery on Friday morning while inventorying donated items, prompting the evacuation of an entire city block for more than two and a half hours while authorities investigated, police said.
The Dane County Bomb Squad was dispatched to the scene and collected the explosive device, identified by police as a “cluster bomblet,” to be safely destroyed, authorities said.
“Employees quickly followed safety protocols by informing store and donation center management and safety teams who then evacuated the building out of precaution for shoppers, donors and employees,” Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin wrote in a statement.
“The Janesville Police Department and Dane County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad responded to the incident and provided further community safety guidance. The store and donation center resumed operations for shopping and donating shortly after 1:30 p.m.,” the agency said.
No one was hurt in the incident, but Janesville cops are now searching for the mystery donor of the highly dangerous items.
In a statement, the police department urged residents who have “old military ordinances” to contact it to ensure the devices can be properly disposed of.
Although the age and size of the “cluster bomblet” found at the Goodwill location was not immediately known, the use, transfer, production and stockpiling of cluster munitions have been banned worldwide since 2010 when the United Nations Convention on Cluster Munitions went into effect.
More than 125 nations have signed the treaty, which defines cluster bombs as “a conventional munition that is designed to disperse or release explosive submunitions, each weighing less than 20 kilograms.”
Goodwill employees weren’t the only ones to unexpectedly find themselves face to face with a live explosive device in recent days.
Earlier this month, a pair of fisherman in Scotland unknowingly reeled in a live World War II-era grenade from the Union Canal.
They need to search for a one armed person.
My guess would be that they didn’t want to get caught with it since it is ‘illegal’, so they figured this would be the easiest solution, take it to some place that may not be able to track it back to them. Seems the likely scenario.
Where were these donations destined for?
Some muslim is going to be very pissed that they left their bomb stuff, or they had planned to blow up the Goodwill store. I don’t think muslims are known for philanthropy.
What a waste. …With the help of a drone, It could have been used on a specific ex-POTUS I can think of, or on so many other Libs in power.