WWII Bomb Washes Ashore in Santa Cruz During 2023 Historic Super Swell
On New Year’s Eve, amidst the bedlam of massive surf detonating on the California coast, a curious casualty of history washed ashore in Santa Cruz.
It was a bomb, a World War II practice bomb.
Beachgoers spotted the rusted WWII artifact on Pajaro Dunes south of Santa Cruz, then called the cops. And soon, the bomb squad was on the beach.
Luckily, the bomb was a dud. Or rather, inert.
According to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Department:
“On New Year’s Eve, our bomb team was called out to the Pajaro Dunes. The recent storms washed up what was determined to be an inert military ordnance!
“As a precaution our bomb team responded, deemed it safe, and had it removed from the beach.
“Thank you to Travis Air Force Base personnel for responding and collecting it!”
The bomb squad found that the device had no active explosives. As a safety precaution, however, they removed it from the beach, and held for safe keeping by the Travis Air Force Base Explosive Ordnance Disposal.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson, Ashley Keehn, said in a statement:
"Every few years we will see military ordnances wash up. We occasionally see sea flares uncovered. This ordnance washing up on shore goes to show the intensity of the high surf we saw in Santa Cruz County this past week."
On the other side of the country, a few weeks prior, another historically massive swell in New Jersey washed ashore another curious piece of detritus: plane seats.
Tin foil hats were donned for that sighting, as conspiracy theorists pondered which downed plane the remnants were from.
As for the debris in California, it was just…da bomb.
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