The 93-year-old Evergreen Park man warned his caretaker after she found an old box in his basement this morning: “Be careful with this, there’s dynamite in there.”
“Sure enough, it was,” said Evergreen Park police Lt. Pete Donovan. The box looked like a 1930s or 40s-era suitcase. Inside was something a bit more menacing — 24 sticks of dynamite, weighing about 50 pounds.
“It was marked: ‘High explosives, DuPont,’ the chemical place,” said Donovan. “It looked brand new,” Donovan said of the sticks.
It happened at 10:12 a.m. at the man’s single-family home in the 9700 block of South Hamlin Avenue in the southwest suburb. During storms the last couple of days, water seeped into his basement. His caretaker was in the basement cleaning up when she found the box.
He asked her to throw it out and explained he’d been given the dynamite from a friend more than 60 years ago. The friend had since moved to California and passed away.
After the discovery, the caretaker called 911 and police and the Cook County bomb squad got there — first with two bomb technicians and a canine-unit and then 13 more officers.
“As soon as they got there the dog alerted right away,” Donovan said.
County officials to the dynamite to the Thornton Quarry where it was destroyed.
“They were handling it very safely,” Donovan said.
The 9700 and 9800 block of South Hamlin Avenue was shut down in both directions and about three homes in each direction of his house were evacuated. A number of schools in that area, including Brother Rice, Mother McAuley, and two elementary schools were placed on lock-down.
A reverse 911 message was sent out to the area of West 95th Street to West 99th Street and from South Pulaski Avenue to South Central Park Avenue asking residents to remain in their homes, according to Donovan.
By 11:12 a.m. the bomb square had “secured” the box and the scene was cleared by police at 2:20 p.m.
The schools were notified and another reverse 911 was made to the same area advising residents the area was open. No one was injured and nothing exploded on the scene.
This was a new one for Donovan, a 23-year police veteran, who said he’d never anything like it.
The 93-year-old is not facing charges, though police are still trying to find out why he and his friend had it.
When asked if it could it have exploded, Donovan said: “It’s dynamite.”
rsobol@tribune.com | Twitter: @RosemarySobol1
