L.A. homeowner stumbled on 20 sticks of dynamite in her garage freezer. She has no clue where they came from

A Los Angeles homeowner who decided to clean out her garage stumbled upon an alarming surprise when she opened an old freezer and found 20 sticks of live dynamite inside. The discovery even led to an evacuation for the surrounding neighborhood.

The Los Angeles Police Department Bomb Squad were called to an address on Rhodes Avenue in Valley Glen around 9 a.m. on Wednesday June 9 after the homeowner found the deadly explosives while cleaning. The woman who found the explosives told the officers on the scene that she had no idea how the sticks of dynamite had ended up in there according to an article from PEOPLE.

The incident is currently still under investigation with investigators still looking into whether there are any more potential suspects, according to the LA Times. While the discovery is concerning, authorities are not treating the incident as a criminal matter but rather a lost/found property situation.

She further explained that she and her late husband, (who passed away over ten years ago), had purchased the refrigerator when they initially bought their home LAPD Captain Warner Castillo explained. “I’m not an expert, but whoever put it there knew that it was going to be safe, for what it’s worth,” Castillo said. 

The dynamite could have caused a lot of damage

Thankfully the dynamite did not explode. Each stick weighed roughly 10-15 pounds and, had all 20 gone off, it could have caused significant damage to the surrounding area according to Castillo. Such an explosion could have led to “hearing loss” for nearby residents as well as “structural damage” to neighboring properties. “God forbid, some people could have lost their lives or even be maimed with that amount of dynamite,” the police captain warned.

Investigators believe that the dynamite may have belonged to the late husband of the homeowner who died in 2014. . The explosive materials were removed from the property by officials and taken to a secure location. The evacuation which had temporarily been put in place was lifted by 3 p.m. the same day.

Purchasing dynamite is typically restricted to licensed professionals only in the state of California. It’s common for the explosive to be used in industries that require it such as mining, building demolitions, and quarry operations, or even in more bizarre circumstances like in Oregon where officials used dynamite to blow up a whale. What the homeowner’s husband did for a living has not been shared by authorities.