Dog owners, families warned about tennis ball bombs

As the Fourth of July approaches, local law enforcement reminds residents to call 911 to report illegal fireworks and homemade items – including tennis ball bombs.

In a recent Kent community meeting between residents and police, someone asked, "How do you identify a tennis ball bomb?"

Kent police responded: "A tennis ball bomb is very easy to identify. It is a real tennis ball that has some sort of fuse sticking out of it. The tennis ball could also be completely wrapped in duct tape with a fuse sticking out."
 
The warning of tampered tennis balls go beyond just the city of Kent.
 
Earlier this year in Everett, a man geo-caching stumbled upon a set of explosives: Tennis balls with fuses coming out of them.

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No one was injured during the discovery.

But in 2000, a ball blast turned fatal in Portland when a man was playing with his dog.

An article archived in Oregonian headlines reports that a man was playing fetch with a friend's dog when a tennis ball the dog was retrieving exploded in her mouth.

People are cautioned year-round to leave abandoned tennis balls alone.

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