RANLO, N.C.
Ranlo's police chief told Eyewitness News that he thinks there are more bombs hidden away in a rural Gaston County field, and there will be a search party to locate them on Monday morning.
It appears the bomb pulled from the woods Friday night was a practice round, but Police Chief Tim Anderson said he wants to make sure any other bomb isn't filled with dangerous explosives.
Anderson said there will be about a dozen police officers and sheriff's deputies searching the woods beginning at 10 a.m.
It's not the first time that weapons have been found in the small town of Ranlo. For some residents, it's a reminder of a scary incident from 14 years ago.
Darlene Poole was using a tiller to garden in her background in 1997 when she accidentally dug up a 10 pound cannonball.
"I really didn't know it was a cannonball. We dug it up, we played with it. I said, 'Here son, here's a big old ball, go catch it!'" Poole recalled.
After cleaning it off, she grew suspicious and called the police.
Her sister Donna saved the Gaston Gazette article about the incident, and showed it to Eyewitness News.
Many new neighbors had heard about the story, but never thought more dangerous weapons would be found.
"I won't go back out there, that's for sure," said neighbor Taylor Akers.
Taylor Akers said she's not going to let her daughter play in the woods anymore.
"It makes me nervous, for them to even be outside," Akers said.
Eyewitness News dug through government records and found an Executive Order from President Harry Truman in 1945, authorizing a Ranlo factory called Cocker Machine and Foundry to build bombs for the war.
"I think we had an order at one time for five thousand of those things," said former employee Charles Dixon.
Charles Dixon, 76, worked at Cocker for 18 years, and said he's curious to find out how the bomb got into the woods.
"It looks to me like it'd be impossible for a 500-pound bomb to get too far away from where it was made," Dixon said.
"But they found one bomb," Eyewitness News.
"Well, that's true. That's certainly true," Dixon said, chuckling.
Dixon said the 500 pound practice bombs were filled with cement to help Navy pilots get used to the weight and feel of them, and also to see how deep the bombs would penetrate the ground when dropped from high altitudes.
Officers in Ranlo plan to search for more bombs
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