Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
SYRACUSE - No one was hurt when a man found an old explosive device at his farm near Syracuse Tuesday afternoon.
According to an incident report, Eric Erlenwien of CR 900N, Syracuse, called the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department to report that he found a "military-looking bomb" while trying to remove a tree and stump from his property.
After finding the object, Erlenwien told everyone to stay away from it, then he called police.
When Kosciusko County Sheriff's Deputy Craig Bale arrived at the residence on CR 900N, he saw a "2-foot long, 20-to-30 pound 80 mm military-type explosive device with covered tail fins lying at the base of a large tree."
The Fort Wayne Allen County Hazardous Device Unit was called and a team was sent to the residence.
Once the unit arrived, a robot was used to move the device to a safer location on the property. Then charges were used to detonate the device.
According to Bale, the device was very old and might have contained black powder, which made it unstable and dangerous to move very far.
"It was wet and old, so (the hazardous device unit) destroyed it where it was," Bale said.
Bale said the farm has belonged to the family for many years, and a grandfather said he thought he recalled seeing the device on the farm many years ago.
Although police are not sure where the device came from, they say it may have been something that a military person brought home after service many years ago. Years ago, many such devices were taken home with them. Most of the devices were inert and did not contain explosive devices. However, there was no safe way to determine if the device found Tuesday was explosive or not, so it was destroyed.
No one was injured in the incident.
