JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A possible explosive found in a South Metro yard turned out to be a training round Tuesday, after the JSO bomb squad taped off blocks of Kingwood Road to investigate.
The property used to belong to retired JSO bomb technician Edward DeFoor, who had previously been arrested for explosives charges.
Robin Turek, whose great niece recently moved into the home, found the round while she was working in the yard.
"I was raking the yard and when I was finished I went to go put the tools down and I went to put the tools down and I hit a piece of metal and I thought it was a brick. I was collecting bricks to do a border and when I pulled it up, it was a mortar, and I called my brother-in-law and he said if it didn't have a dent on the bottom, it means that it hasn't been detonated. He said call the police and they'll come out and remove it," Turek said.
The bomb squad evacuated people from 6 homes in the area while officers investigated the device and the rest of the yard.
Turek's great niece, 19-year old Allie Lewis moved into the home two months ago and said that the home was still full of DeFoor's stuff.
"He was a man's man. He had all this ammunition, gunpowder, canons and a lot of explosives," Lewis said. "The house was completely booby-trapped when we came in, so I don't know what else awaits us at this residence."
There was concern more military ordnance could be inside the home but nothing was found.
DeFoor passed away in December but had been arrested in 2001 after investigators found boxes of old dynamite and hundreds of pounds of C-4 in a storage unit on Philips Highway.
Police evacuated people then too and closed roads in the area, including Interstate 95, for several hours.
Lewis said investigators have scoured the property before but clearly didn't find all of DeFoor's devices.
"Danger always lives in your backyard nowadays," Lewis said.
A friend of Defoor's said he was a brilliant man who was honored as one of the most memorable men in 2014. The friend said Defoor just liked to blow stuff up.