Resident Turns Explosives Over to North Caldwell Police

A North Caldwell woman who discovered shotgun shells and two explosive devices in a friend's basement, brought the items to the North Caldwell Police Department, causing police to close two streets near the police station as a precaution.

The woman, who was not identified by police, parked her minivan in front of the police station on Gould Avenue at 10:40 a.m. Tuesday and alerted Officer Sue DePoe she wanted to turn in approximately 30 shotgun shells and two explosives.

DePoe immediately notified Chief Mark Deuer, DePoe said. "Our police training is to move away and call the bomb squad," said Chief Deuer.

Traffic was closed off at the intersections of Gould and Mountain avenues and Gould and Park avenues, and a police officer was stationed in front of the Gould School. "The school wasn't in any jeopardy," Deuer said.

What appeared to be a missile and some sort of explosive device were inspected by the Essex County Sheriff's Department's Bomb Squad who deemed them inactive and safe for transportation, Deuer said.

The Essex County Sheriff's Department's Bomb Squad arrived at 11:15 a.m., Deuer said.  "They inspected both items and found them both to be inactive," Deuer said. The items were transported back to the Essex County Sheriff's Office and the woman in the minivan left the police station after the report was completed.

The woman said she discovered the items earlier that morning while cleaning out a friend's basement on Washington Avenue in Belleville.

"We advised her that in the future she should leave all explosive devices where they are and call the police department," Deuer said, adding that it would have been safer to notify the Belleville Police Department rather than transporting the potentially dangerous items in her car.

"She was trying to do the right thing, in the wrong way," Deuer said.