Vintage mortar round left in Florida bar’s parking lot ignites jokes on social media

Mark Price
·2 min read
14

Strange things turn up in the parking lots outside Florida’s honky tonks, but vintage bombs are typically not among the bottles, beer cans and cigarette butts.

Yet one was found around 8:30 a.m. Sunday, May 12, at a rural nightclub near High Springs, according to the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office in North Florida. High Springs is about a 75-mile drive southwest from Jacksonville.

“A passerby alerted deputies to a suspicious device in the parking lot of Billy’s Santa Fe Bar ... near the Alachua County line,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

“Deputies blocked of the area and assistance was requested from the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad. Upon inspection of the device, it was deemed to not be equipped with a charge. The device was collected by the bomb squad and the scene was deemed to be clear.”

Billy’s Santa Fe Bar responded to the discovery with humor, posting on the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page that it was offering a $1 discount on all shots for Mother’s Day.

An investigation is underway into how someone lost their bomb — and the possibilities are being humorously debated on social media. Some commenters identified the mortar as a Vietnam-era 81 mm round.

“Might (have) been an antique someone had and it fell out of the vehicle? It is an odd thing to be in a parking lot,” Karyn Donton posted on the sheriff’s office Facebook page.

“Who is riding around with a mortar that can fall out of the car in a parking lot? That’s a bit concerning,” Laura Armstrong Poore wrote.

“I’m betting someone is uptight this morning about losing their mortar. ... Let this be a lesson to us all. Leave your explosive looking hardware at home before going out and about,” Jeana Barnett Crenshaw said.

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