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World Landmine News
Decades-old ordnance discovered at residence - The Daily News
BEAUFORT — Three ammunition boxes containing military explosives and detonation devices were removed safely from behind a Beaufort residence this week after being uncovered by a landscaping crew working at the site.
The explosive ordnance division from Cherry Point removed two ammunition boxes containing the explosives Thursday and a third one on Friday, said Capt. Frankie Fulcher of the Carteret County Sheriff’s Department.
Fulcher said the explosives, which had apparently been buried for 20 years, were unearthed by a landscaping crew digging up a foundation located behind a home at the end of Lennoxville Road in Beaufort.
The Sheriff’s Department was contacted around 1:30 p.m. Thursday after the first two ammunition boxes were dug up. The tops of the boxes had been forced open in the process, and the workers indicated the contents appeared to be C-4 explosives and a landmine.
Fulcher responded to the scene with deputies Sgt. Tom Maulshagen and Lt. Jamie Willis, and they cordoned off the area around the hole where the boxes were located and contacted EOD at Cherry Point.
Because the site was located along Taylor’s Creek, N.C. Marine Patrol and the U.S. Coast Guard assisted in closing off a section of the waterway to ensure boater safety, Fulcher said.
The EOD unit confirmed the boxes contained C-4 explosives, a Claymore anti-personnel mine as well as detonation cords, blasting caps and clackers, devices used in setting off the explosives, he said.
After rendering them safe, the EOD removed the explosives from the site.
Fulcher said that the boxes had apparently been buried for years, noting that the latest manufacturing date for any of the devices was 1982.
“The containers they were found in were old and rusted and you could tell they had been buried there 20 years but when you opened them up, everything was pristine. The explosives looked brand new,” Fulcher said.
The third box was found Friday after Fulcher returned to the site with representatives of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which is now investigating the discovery of the military explosives and how they ended up at the Beaufort site.
The landscaping crew had returned to work, and while authorities were there, the other ammunition box was found.
It was not opened by the backhoe, but it was similar to what had already been found, prompting the Sheriff’s Department to close off the area again and call the EOD unit back to the scene.
The box, which contained more detonation cord, clackers and blasting caps, was removed and another 8- to 10-foot area around the hole was dug to ensure there were no other explosives to be found at the site.
Fulcher said the explosives were likely buried on the property long before the home now located there was built.
Posted: Saturday, June 24, 2006
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