The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department bomb squad shown in a file photo. Photo by Jeremiah Dobruck.

Police evacuated homes near Cerritos Avenue and South Street Thursday afternoon  after a resident found a potentially live World War II-era rocket round in his garage.

The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department bomb squad responded to the scene and discovered the rocket was an inert practice round, but not before a few tense moments for Christina Gill and her family.

A potentially live World War II-era rocket round the Gill family found in their garage. Photo courtesy of the Gill family.

Gill said the rocket had been in their garage for years; one of the family members collects World War II memorabilia and he thought it was a dummy round.

But today, one of them picked it up and felt something move inside. They decided to call police to have it disposed of.

“I put that thing outside so quickly,” one of the family members said.

The family placed the rusted rocket round on the front lawn while they called the authorities, Long Beach Fire Department spokesman Jack Crabtree said.

The bomb squad X-rayed the rocket, discovered it was inert and collected it, according to sheriff’s department. 

The evacuation in the neighborhood was lifted around 2:45.

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Jeremiah Dobruck is executive editor of the Long Beach Post where he oversees all day-to-day newsroom operations. In his time working as a journalist in Long Beach, he’s won numerous awards for his investigative reporting and editing. Before coming to the Post in 2018, he wrote for publications including the Press-Telegram, Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times. Reach him at [email protected] or @jeremiahdobruck on Twitter.