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Military ordnance found in Needham. No, not that one, a new one.
Asked how old the explosives are and how they ended up in Needham, a police spokesperson said investigators “don’t really know” at this point.
For the second time in less than a week, magnet fishers in Needham pulled a live explosive from the Charles River, according to officials.
Needham police said the individuals were magnet fishing — using a powerful magnet to retrieve objects from a body of water — around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday when they picked up “what appeared to be an unexploded ordnance.”
Previously:
According to police, the explosive was found in the Charles River near Kendrick Street at the Newton town line — the same area where magnet fisher Sean Martell found a rusty military ordnance last Friday.
The Massachusetts State Police bomb squad determined that the first explosive was “a military projectile in a severely deteriorated state” and later disposed of it. The second ordnance likewise needed to be detonated, according to Needham police.
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“It will be disposed of shortly in an unspecified area of town,” the department wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday. “You may hear it in town.”
An emergency alert also went out to the surrounding area, warning of the imminent explosion.
The bomb squad determined the explosive was a “heavily deteriorated bazooka round,” possibly dating back to the World War II era, according to a State Police spokesperson.
“In an abundance of caution, MSP Bomb Squad members removed the round to a secure location and safely counter-charged it, rendering it safe,” spokesperson Dave Procopio said in a statement.
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The projectile found in the same stretch of river last Friday is also believed to date from around World War I or World War II, he said.
A WBZ crew was reporting a story on magnet fishing in Needham Wednesday and was present when magnet fisher Josh Parker found the bazooka.
“I’m speechless, I’m shaking, I’m nervous,” Parker told the news outlet. “When you’re dealing with something that literally could explode, you want to be very, very careful.”
Asked how the explosives ended up in Needham, a Needham police spokesperson said investigators “don’t really know” at this point.
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