“Torpedos” Found In South Milwaukee?

From South Milwaukee Fire Chief Joe Knitter …

In another one of those “nothing ever surprises me” moments . . . we had a citizen stop in and report that he was helping a 90-year old friend clean his garage out and was given a cigar box that the 90-year old had hand-written “Danger” and “Torpedos” on and the box contained some type of explosives.  I’ve attached the pictures.  The kicker was that the guy had them in the trunk of his car and transported them to the front of the firehouse without knowing exactly what he was dealing with.  Luckily, I had dealt with similar items in the past at Caterpillar when they found boxes of them while cleaning out an old warehouse.  I removed them from the trunk of the citizens car and placed them behind the fire station for safe storage.  I then called the Southeastern Wisconsin Threat Analysis Center (STAC) which is a cooperative law enforcement group co-located with Milwaukee Police Dept’s Intelligence Fusion Center downtown, and requested they notify MPD’s Bomb Squad (that’s whom I dealt with last time). A Lt. from MPD called me shortly after and arranged to come out to pick them up.  He happened to be the same guy I dealt with during the Caterpillar incident.  In the end, they may or may not have been dangerous . . . it all depends how they are handled and what type of shape they are in. The Lt. stated that he would take them back for safe storage and eventual disposal when they destroy all of their confiscated explosives.

 As a side note, these “torpedos” were used by the railroad (and by Bucyrus on their crane rails) to signify trouble or get the operators attention when the rail car or crane wheels passed over them.  They were affixed to the tracks with the wires that are protruding out of them (see the pictures). While they were not meant to harm anyone, we are told that they are extremely loud and can cause hearing damage and injuries to anyone handling them.