An evening of magnet fishing at Sonoma State University turned into something closer to a crime drama on Wednesday, after a community member hauled what appeared to be an explosive device out of the University Lakes and set off a full bomb-squad response. The object was pulled from the northwest section of the lakes, university officials said, and a portion of campus was temporarily closed while police secured the scene. No injuries were reported as investigators began working to figure out where the item came from and how it ended up in the water.
Officers were called at about 5:45 PM after the magnet fisher snagged the object from the lake’s northwest area, according to The Press Democrat. Campus police quickly cleared people from the area, put up yellow caution tape around the lakeshore and requested assistance from county bomb technicians.
A detective with the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad collected the suspected device and took it to an off-campus facility so it could be rendered safe. “At no time was the community in imminent danger,” Sonoma State Police Chief Nader Oweis wrote in a notice to the campus community, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
How the device was handled
Based on what campus officers saw at the scene, the Sonoma County bomb squad was called in to assist, and a bomb-squad detective removed the item for controlled disposal and closer examination, The Press Democrat reports. Officials have not released any specifics about how the device was built or how long it might have been underwater, saying only that the investigation remains active.
Why magnet fishing can be risky
Magnet fishing, which involves dragging heavy-duty magnets through rivers, lakes or ponds to pull up metal, has quietly become a popular hobby. Every so often, though, the “treasure” turns out to be trouble. The pastime has turned up grenades and deteriorated military projectiles in other parts of the country, some of which later had to be detonated or rendered safe by explosives experts, according to People…