News

Actions

Explosive device found in North Park yard

Posted at 6:22 PM, Jan 25, 2016
and last updated 2016-01-26 10:38:01-05

Parents always worry, but your own backyard is the one place your kids are supposed to be safe.

The Brady family has been working to revamp their backyard in North Park, and they had recently pulled out bamboo lattice.

Jason Brady said, on Sunday, his one-year-old son and three-year-old daughter were playing with toys and Tonka trucks, when he spotted unexploded ordnance.

"It's disturbing to know there's potential for something that dangerous to be in the yard," Brady said.

He called police, who brought the bomb squad.

"He said it was a 20mm round from an aircraft cannon," Brady explained.

It was a live round as big as a banana.

"He definitely said it was something not to be trifled with," Brady added.

Brady said it was just sitting on the ground next to the kids' sandbox.

"I was pretty panicked and mortified that there could be live ammunition just laying in my yard," he added.

It was also by an underground gas line, and it is something he easily could have hit with the lawnmower.

"I mean very disturbing to know that was possible," Brady said.

He thinks workers must have dug it up at some point. He could not help but wonder how it wound up mixed in with his kids' toys in the first place.

"They said probably a souvenir somebody took home at some point that worked for the military," Brady added.

More yard work and a metal detector may help put their minds at ease.

"The most likely answer is it's a fluke thing, that this just happened to be out there for whatever reason," he said.

He is a dad, so he cannot help but worry his kids are playing on a buried cache.

Police said to call in if you find anything suspicious like that.