Stash of WWII Grenades, Land Mines, Training Bombs Found in Cabazon

Deputies discovered a stash of World War II grenades, land mines and training bombs last week in a Cabazon storage area on private property, and they removed the last of the military explosives on Tuesday June 4, a sheriff's sergeant said in a statement.

The former owner of the stash is deceased and had collected the items over several years from unknown sources and locations, according to Sgt. Bob Epps of the Cabazon Station.

Members of the Riverside County Sheriff's Hazardous Device Team were called out around 12:30 p.m. Thursday May 30 to a location in the 49000 block of Bonita Avenue, near Morongo Trail and south of Interstate 10, Epps said.

"At the location, bomb technicians discovered a huge stash of WWII era military ordnance items, including small arms casings and projectiles, 2000 20mm practice projectiles, 75mm practice projectiles, several signal flares, inert rifle grenades, over 2000 grenade bodies, training grenade fuses, several training land mines, 160 100 pound training bombs, and 18 500 pound training bombs," Epps said.

The Sheriff's Department requested help from the 29 Palms Marine Corps Combat Center's Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit to identify and remove the items, Epps said.

"Fortunately, most of the items were inert, but many of the items were illegal to possess," Epps said. "The items that presented a danger were quickly identified and returned to the military."

Due to the large size of the cache, the last items were removed on Tuesday June 4, Epps said.

"Collecting military ordnance can be very dangerous because many training items look very similar to live items," Epps said. "It is extremely dangerous to pick up military ordnance items.

"In some cases, live military ordnance items fail to function in training and are left sitting and exposed to the environment for long periods of time. One small movement can cause them to function and seriously injure or kill people."

Epps urged people to report suspected military ordnance items, bombs, or similar explosives by calling the Sheriff's Department at (951) 776-1099.