WW II Vintage Explosive Shell Hauled Off From Wenatchee Sidewalk

Police don't know how an explosive shell found its way to a sidewalk in Wenatchee Monday afternoon. 

Officers say a passerby alerted them to what turned out to be a 40-millimeter World War II vintage shell along with a glove sitting on the ground next to the old Wenatchee fire station at 136 S. Chelan Avenue. 

Police Captain Edgar Reinfeld says military experts were called in to haul off the shell. 

"The explosives ordnance disposal team from the U.S. Army down at the Yakima national training center came to Wenatchee and retrieved the shell and took it somewhere to do whatever they do with it, to dispose of it however they were going to," said Reinfeld. 

Wenatchee Police watched over the shell while the team made the two hours plus drive from Yakima to haul it away. 

The shell was left at the northeast corner of S. Chelan Avenue and Yakima Street in front of the former fire station, which was shut down in 2021. The shell was across the street from Wenatchee City Hall. 

Reinfeld said police did not think the shell was dangerous but always defer to explosives experts when confronted with a situation such as what occurred Monday. 

"While not necessarily unsafe to handle, it's also not safe to mess with it, and we like to have professionals come do that for us," Reinfeld said. 

There is no local explosives ordnance disposal team in Wenatchee. Reinfeld said they rely on the Washington State Patrol, which has a team on both sides of the Cascades or the U.S. Army in Yakima.