A portion of College Parkway and Gulf Breeze Parkway was closed to traffic for about two hours Monday afternoon when an elderly man walked into the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's district 1 office carrying a bomb.

 

"A resident found something that looked like a bomb and hand carried it to our substation in Midway," said Marc Ward, public information officer for the sheriff's office.

The resident found the bomb - a BDU 33 practice bomb - partially embedded in the soil near the Beaver Creek Subdivision in Gulf Breeze.

"This area was used as a bombing range for many years," Ward said. "It's no surprise someone found something like this.  It's probably harmless but until an expert determines that, we have to take proper precautions."

Because the device belonged to the military, members of Hurlburt Field's explosive ordinance disposal unit were called to investigate.

"If it's a military ordinance, you have to call (the military)," said Jon Kanzigg, Midway fire chief, whose firefighters acknowledged the bomb as a dummy. "It's probably been (where it was found) for 60 years or so."

Hurlburt Field officials are unsure how the dummy bomb got to its location, adding that no one was in any danger during the ordeal.

"It was a hollow shell of a bomb," said Airman First Class Joel McFadden, public affairs officer.

Residents surrounding the sheriff's office were not evacuated and no one was injured. However, deputies caution that anyone who finds what appears to be an explosive device to leave it where it is and call deputies to the scene.