Rick Gunn/Nevada Appeal Carson City Sheriff Kenny Furlong, center, waits for the bomb squad to arrive after a Carson City resident excavated a box full of dynamite near Mexican Dam and delivered it to the Sheriff's Office Wednesday afternoon.
A man who brought what he thought was cocaine wrapped in wax to the Carson City Sheriff's Department on Wednesday caused evacuation of the building after authorities discovered it was dynamite.
Mark Gregory of Carson City was excavating property near Mexican Dam when a wooden box was discovered, said Sheriff Kenny Furlong.
The excavation destroyed the box, so Gregory picked up wax-covered tubes leaking a yellow powder, put them into a 5-gallon bucket, and drove them to the Sheriff's Department on Musser Street about 1 p.m.
By the time anyone knew what it was, the bucket was sitting in the lobby, Furlong said.
Members of the Tahoe-Douglas Bomb Squad arrived, donned protective suits, and entered the empty building to stabilize the old mining TNT, Furlong said.
It was then taken to Carson City Fire Station No. 2 on College Parkway, where it was burned.
n Contact reporter F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.