BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis said officials are working to safely dispose of a "toxic" and potentially "explosive" item donated to the Historic May-Stringer House Museum in downtown Brooksville.
According to the sheriff, shortly after 8 a.m. on July 10, the fire department responded to the location.
Sheriff Nienhuis said the donated item is a glass pharmaceutical bottle "a doctor would use around the turn of the century, 18th to 19th." He added that through research it was used for burns, as it "was used for both as an antiseptic and an analgesic."
He explained, "This particular bottle had crystallized, and when picric acid crystallizes, it apparently becomes an explosive."
Out of the abundance of caution, the sheriff's office contacted the Citrus County Sheriff's Office for its bomb squad to take it and dispose of it.
Until then, officials have cordoned off the area around the May-Stringer House.
It's a result of a hazmat call that may be an explosive material.
The sheriff said the person who donated the item the night before told authorities her father was a doctor in another area of the state and kept the bottle in a cabinet in his office.
According Sheriff Nienhuis, the doctor passed away about four years ago and his daughter was donating these old medical items to the museum. He added this incident "does not appear as though anything is criminal."
This is a developing story. Tampa Bay 28 will provide more details as they become available.
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