World War II detonator found in Tinley Park

Dennis Sullivan

Chicago-Like hundreds, if not thousands, of World War II and Korean War veterans, Tinley Park resident Carmen  DiCarlo held on to assorted souvenirs and keepsakes he’d collected while serving as an Army MP.

"He was a packrat," his daughter Sarah Ziegler said of her father, who served in World War II as an MP.

DiCarlo, who died in Sept. 2005, recently caused a posthumous stir on his street 19 when his two sons-in-law discovered what they thought was a landmine among his mementos.

     Allan Ziegler discovered the 2-inch diameter, 4- to 5-inch long circular contraption while sorting through DiCarlo’s belongings April 19 in the basement of the townhome where he had lived with his wife, Mary, who died April 4. Allan Ziegler handed it to his brother-in-law, Doug Welch, who had served in the Marines. Writing on the device suggested it was a tank landmine.

Sarah Ziegler and her sister, Florence Welch, who were working upstairs at the time quickly joined their husbands. "We decided we better call somebody, and Doug called the Tinley Park police," Sarah Ziegler said today).

The police blocked off the 7700 block of Bristol Park Drive and ushered residents out of their homes in anticipation of a bomb squad going through the DeCarlo home.

Cook County Sheriff’s Police Spokeswoman Lisa Gordon said today that the bomb squad determined that the contraption was a detonator that fit inside a World War II tank landmine "the size of a small table."

Gordon said the bomb squad fields four to five calls a month from children, grandchildren and widows who’ve found bombs and hand grenades hoarded among the effects of World War II and Korean War veterans. Like the detonator found by the Welches and Zieglers, the bombs have been inert, Gordon said.

The two sisters agreed Carmen DiCarlo would have enjoyed the hubbub his memento caused. "Our dad is probably rolling in his grave laughing," Sarah Ziegler said.