Authorities are searching for people whose donations to Wisconsin Goodwill last week included ammunition and live explosive devices, triggering a bomb scare and evacuation of the area.
Grocery store workers in the town of Janesville outside of 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 explosives, which police identified as “cluster bombs,” for safe disposal, authorities said.
“Employees quickly followed safety protocols by notifying store and donation center management and security teams who then evacuated the building as a precaution for shoppers, donors and employees,” Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin wrote 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 began operating again for shopping and donations shortly after 1:30 p.m.,” the agency said.
Staff at the Goodwill donation center in Janesville, Wis., found live ammunition and a “cluster bomb” while doing inventory on Friday’s donation.WKOW
Stores and surrounding businesses were evacuated after the discovery.WKOW
No one was injured in the incident, but Janesville police are now looking for the mysterious donor of the highly dangerous item. In a statement, the police department urged residents with “old military ordinances” to contact them to ensure the devices can be disposed of properly.
Although the age and size of the “cluster bomb” found at the Muhibah location was 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 countries have signed the treaty, which defines a cluster bomb as “a conventional munition designed to disperse or release explosives, each weighing less than 20 kilograms.”
Goodwill staff aren’t the only ones who have unexpectedly found themselves face-to-face with live explosive devices in recent days.
Earlier this month, a pair of fishermen in Scotland unwittingly reeled in a World War II-era grenade straight from the Union Canal.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
