Police and bomb squad officials investigated a suspicious device discovered in Tierrasanta Sunday that was ultimately deemed harmless.
SDPD officer Dan Lasher said the small device -- later identified by officials as a paintball grenade -- was found just before noon near the 3200 block of Santo Road. The bomb squad got to the scene around 12:20 p.m.
By aprroximately 12:30 p.m., police officers had cleared a nearby park as officials secured the scene. The bomb squad honed in on the object, which was lying in a dirt area near a gutter, and officials were able to determine it was a paintball grenade.
“We determined it was actually a paintball grenade that people use when they play paintball. This device does not have any explosives in it and is harmless," Matt Carr of the San Diego Fire Bomb Squad told NBC 7.
"However, in this day and age and post-9/11 anything that resembles a grenade is going to be taken very seriously for the public safety until a trained eye can go in and investigate the situation and determine that it is truly safe,” he added.
The device was found in a neighborhood that boasts a large number of military residents.
“This being a military housing area and a prior training environment, military ordinance has been found in this area previous to this, so we take calls like this very seriously,” said Carr.
Carr said the bomb squad responds to many of these types of call throughout the year in San Diego.
