Spud harvest yields bomb in Quincy

QUINCY - Workers at Conagra Foods in Quincy brought in an expected surprise with Wednesday morning's potato harvest: a bomb.

Sgt. Paul Snyder with the Quincy Police Department said that officers were dispatched around 3 a.m. to Conagra's potato storage building along B Street SW.

The building was evacuated after the device - determined to be a marker bomb - was discovered.

"They were dropped in front of the bombing planes and it would put a white marker on the ground for other planes to drop bombs," Snyder said.

The device was detonated about 60-70 yards away from the facility just after 7 a.m.

There were no injuries, nor was the public at any substantial risk.

"There was an explosive charge on it, so it's possible that somebody could have been hurt if they were in close proximity to it," Snyder said. "We took it very seriously."

A bomb squad from Richland Police Department trekked north to detonate it.

It is unclear how the bomb arrived there, or where it came from, he said.

However, the Columbia Basin has been used a military training grounds, and similar devices have been uncovered over the past decades.

For example, a 500-pound bomb was found and safely detonated in Royal City last year.