A man lost his hand after picking up a “bomb-like” device while cleaning rubbish from a beach. Jason Turner was walking along Point St. George Beach in Northern California with his girlfriend Pamala Ganfield when he found a “shiny, round object”.
The object exploded in his hand, which required amputation and left him with vision and hearing loss. According to a GoFundMe campaign set up by his daughter Ashley Turner, Jason was cleaning up rubbish from last weekend’s Fourth of July celebrations, picking up firework remnants to keep the beach clean.
The Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office said he was found in the beach’s car park with a “significant injury to his hand” and was taken to a nearby hospital.
The couple were roughly a quarter of a mile from the car park and without any phone signal when the device exploded, police said.
Ashley wrote: “The explosion resulted in the loss of his hand, turning what should have been a simple act of kindness into a life-changing emergency.”
She said he father has “metal fragments stuck in his eyes and behind his left eye he has blood. … His right eardrum is blown and he has no hearing out of it”.
She described the object as a cylindrical device poking out of a mound of sand near the waterline.
The GoFundMe is asking for $40,000 (£29,000) to help cover his medical bills and other associated expenses. As of Friday, it has raised a whopping $96,000 (£71,000).
Sheriff Kayle Stevens told NBC News that police have not been able to identify what exploded because “we did not find any debris or remnants of the device”.
The sheriff’s office said it had not found any similar devices as the investigation into the incident continues.
It added: “If you find a suspected explosive device do not touch it. Move away to a safe distance and immediately contact law enforcement.”
