It was discovered along with some ammunition in a box of antique items brought to Richard and Sherry’s Trading Company at 33 Main Street for possible purchase. When the store owners called in Jackson Police to check out the object, police determined that is was an explosive devise and cordoned off Main Street between Court and Water Streets. Main Street stores were evacuated in the vicinity of 33 Main Street until Calaveras County Sheriff’s bomb squad could be called in to do an assessment. After x-raying the object, believed to be some kind of military ordinance, it was decided to detonate it on city property near the city sewer plant behind the former Safeway store building. Hwy 49 and the intersection at Hwy 88 were closed in both directions and Mel’s Diner was evacuated while the bomb squad moved the devise across the highway to the detonation site. The explosive was placed in a hole and covered with sandbags before being blown up – witnesses said it made a very convincing BOOM.