Authorities are searching for the person whose donation to Wisconsin Goodwill last week included ammunition and an active explosive device, prompting a bomb threat and area evacuations.
Employees at the thrift store in the town of Janesville, outside Madison, made the shocking discovery Friday morning while taking inventory of 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 bomb,” to be safely destroyed, authorities said.
“Employees quickly followed safety protocols by informing store and donation center management and security teams, who then evacuated the building out of an abundance of caution for shoppers, donors and employees,” wrote Goodwill Industries of Southeast Wisconsin in a statement.
“The Janesville Police Department and the 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 donations shortly after 1:30 p.m.,” the agency said.
Employees at the Goodwill donation center in Janesville, Wisconsin, discovered live ammunition and a “cluster bomb” while inventorying donations on Friday.
The store and surrounding businesses were evacuated after the discovery.WKOW
No one was injured in the incident, but Janesville police are now searching for the mysterious donor of the highly dangerous items. In a statement, the police department urged residents with “former military ordinances” to contact it to ensure the devices can be disposed of properly.
Although the age and size of the “cluster bomb” found at the Goodwill site were not immediately known, the use, transfer, production and storage of cluster munitions has been banned worldwide since 2010, when the United Nations Convention on Cluster Munitions came into force.
More than 125 nations have signed the treaty, which defines cluster bombs as “a conventional munition designed to disperse or release explosive submunitions, each of which weighs less than 20 kilograms.”
Goodwill employees weren’t the only ones who unexpectedly came face to face with an active explosive device in recent days.
Earlier this month, a pair of fishermen in Scotland unknowingly found a live World War II-era grenade from the Union Channel.
Categories: Trending
Source: vtt.edu.vn