The Santa Cruz County (California) Sheriff’s bomb squad recovered World War II-era U.S. Navy practice bomb that washed ashore on the Parajo Dunes on New Year's Eve after powerful storms in the Pacific Ocean sent massive waves slamming along the California coast.
Images captured by the sheriff's office show an old, rusty bomb covered in sea debris on the sands between Santa Cruz and Monterey that authorities "determined to be an inert military ordnance."
"As a precaution our bomb team responded, deemed it safe, and had it removed from the beach," the sheriff's office said in a Facebook post.
The sheriff's office said personnel from Travis Air Force Base — located about 140 miles northeast of the coastal area where authorities discovered the bomb — had later collected the artifact.