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2 Marines In Custody After Taking Explosives to Local Shopping Center
Two active-duty Marines who were driving around Redondo Beach with explosives in their truck were taken into custody Thursday night.
Authorities received a report that the men were driving a white Dodge pickup truck in the area at around 8:10 p.m. and that they were in possession of explosives, according to City News Service.
The vehicle was located in the parking lot of the Living Spaces furniture store on Hawthorne Boulevard, which is next to the South Bay Galleria. Officers with the Redondo Beach Police Department found the Marines, 20-year-old Thomas Bazer and 24-year-old Devin Gajewski, standing next to the truck.
The men admitted to having explosives in the truck.
As a precaution, the parking lot was closed off and several nearby stores were evacuated.
After a three-hour investigation, which included the bomb squad's deployment of the robot device used to detect explosives, authorities recovered 10 "military artillery simulator training aids," (non-lethal stun grenades) that authorities say are typically used in military training to get the soldiers used to the sound of explosions.
Bazer and Gajewski were taken into custody by Naval Criminal Investigative Services agents, who are handling the investigation and working to determine why the Marines were in Redondo Beach with the explosives in the vehicle.
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