Brookfield police are trying to determine who left seven tennis balls packed with powdered explosives and a fully loaded submachine gun inside a residential garage, officials said Monday.
The homemade explosives and firearm were found Sunday night on the 4100 block of Blanchan Avenue by a man who recently rented the garage and was cleaning it out, said Brookfield Lt. Mike Manescalchi. Police are investigating who might have had access to the garage, he said.
Members of the Cook County sheriff’s police bomb squad were called to the scene and removed the explosives. A sheriff’s office spokesman later said the devices “appeared to be some sort of homemade fireworks.”
“They were tennis balls that were packed with powdered explosives, outfitted with a fuse,” he said. All seven were turned over to the Illinois State Police crime lab for analysis, he said.
Manescalchi said he did not know if the 9 mm weapon was semi- or fully automatic.
