Employees of a local electronic recycling company thought they had a bomb on their hands, but it turned out to be a military mix-up.

  • Workers discovered bomb-like device while disassembling a laptop
  • Suspected "bomb" was military training tool

Regency Technologies has a contract with the United States Military to dispose or recycle electronic material, according to Ken MacNevin, spokesman for the defense logistics agency. The agency coordinates disposal services with all branches of the military when it comes to electronic and hazardous waste.

Regency regularly gets shipments of laptops, desktop computers, and other electronics from the government to dispose of or recycle. On Friday, workers were disassembling a laptop when they discovered a “playdough like substance that resembled C-4 along with a blast cap and wires connected to a 9V battery,” according to the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office.

Employees called 911. The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office responded to the warehouse on Broad Street and evacuated Regency Technologies, along with nearby businesses. The Citrus County Bomb Squad came and disposed of the computer.

Investigators eventually figured out the laptop wasn’t a bomb, but a training tool used by the military. Regency Technology was not supposed to get that training tool, MacNevin said.

“Whether the material actually turns out to be inert or not, it should not have been turned into us that way,” MacNevin said. “We’re going to do an investigation into that. It’s too soon to speculate what the outcome of that will be.”

MacNevin said his agency plans to backtrack exactly where the package came from.

“We will have to go through all the paperwork to find out where it came from and then talk with the people involved,” he said. “And do a little forensics on the process that allowed this to happen.”