State Police dispose of unexploded mortar

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Massachusetts State Police bomb technicians from the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) squad detonated an unexploded commercial-grade mortar in the area of the Edgartown landfill off Meshacket Road Friday.

“It’s a large firework — just one,” State Trooper Dustin Shaw told The Times via phone. He said the EOD squad regularly takes undetonated ordnance and safely disposes of it.

Unexploded ordnance are sometimes found in peoples’ homes, such as old relics, or could wash up on the beach and pose a safety concern, Shaw said.

“It could be many things,” he said. “I believe, in this particular case, someone had found it [the firework] in their belongings.”

He said that because police don’t want members of the public taking the risk of disposing of the ordnance themselves, they collect it and detonate it in a safe, controlled environment.

“That’s why we call in the professionals,” Shaw said.