
Photo By Eugene Driscoll
The scene outside CubeSmart on Pershing Drive Wednesday. A state police bomb squad vehicle is in motion on the right.
DERBY — The FBI and the state police bomb squad responded to Pershing Drive Wednesday after munitions were discovered inside a storage unit.
Complete details weren’t immediately available, as police were still at the scene as of 11 p.m.
Derby Police Lt. Justin Stanko said the bomb squad was able to safely take apart what was described as a homemade “improvised explosive device.” Stanko said the device wasn’t terribly powerful, saying had it exploded the damage would’ve been “more akin to fireworks damage.”
Police also found several inert grenades in the storage unit inside CubeSmart Self Storage at 86 Pershing Drive next to the Italian Pavilion restaurant.
The drama started around 7 p.m. when two men arrived at CubeSmart to check out a storage unit they had recently purchased through an auction. The men, who did not want to give their names, said they made the purchase without knowing what was inside the unit. Sometimes valuables are found inside, which can be sold for profit.
The men spotted what they described as a military storage box, which made them happy because it’s a collectible item. However, they opened the box, saw the munitions, feared it would explode, then ran out of the unit.
One of the men said he didn’t want to describe more. The other man said part of the appeal of buying storage units is piecing together they type of person who previously owned the unit by looking at what the person left behind.
But he didn’t appreciate the presence of what looked like explosives, nor did he like thinking about what may have happened had something blown up.
“Look at how close those units are to each other,” he said.
Stanko said police are now trying to track down the previous owner of the storage unit, which he described as abandoned.
State police were unavailable for comment Wednesday night.
The two new storage unit owners were on the scene for several hours waiting to be interviewed by law enforcement, as was an employee of the business.
The Derby Fire Department was also on scene until about 10:30 p.m., when the scene was declared safe.