INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, Fla. — Emergency crews had their hands full on a Florida beach, when an object believed to be a land mine was found.
The Indian River County Sheriff’s Office announced the find along with a photo showing the possible land mine in a Facebook post. In the post, deputies said that Patrick Air Force Base responded to collect the object, which it described as “a piece of suspected military ordnance.”
Patrick Air Force Base officials told UPI that the land mine appears to be from the 1930s.
A witness told WPTV that the object was fund by someone who was checking on sea turtle nests.
The area around the beach was a 20,000-acre training base for the Navy in the 1940s, where more than 100,000 men came to learn about amphibious warfare, WPTV reported. Part of the training involved explosions to test fortified barriers and create obstacles for troops trying to move ashore.