Johnny 5, eat your heart out.

The Dane County Sheriff’s Department has received $133,000 for the purchase of a bomb-squad robot from state government.

Dane County has one of five bomb squads in Wisconsin. Brown County, Kenosha County, Milwaukee County and the city of Milwaukee all have their own bomb specialists.

Originally, officials at Wisconsin Emergency Management considered Milwaukee County for the money for the robot. However, the WEM wanted the robot to be a resource for the entire state, and Milwaukee County’s sheriff said his department couldn’t transport the robot on demand.

“We’re the only bomb squad who was willing to travel to the state to make the robot available,” said Dane County Sheriff Gary Hamblin. The Dane County bomb squad has a vehicle already used to transport its squad and their equipment.

Hamblin said he had only seen the technology in use from television news footage from Florida, where a bomb-squad robot was utilized to investigate a suspicious package in a car. Such robots have also been used to carry cellular phones into hostage situations so law-enforcement agencies could communicate with hostage-takers.

“These robots are remote-controlled and have cameras and so forth so that it can be sent in to investigate a suspicious package,” Hamblin said.

Bomb squads do not deal with suspicious packages and suspected bombs exclusively.

Teams also investigate chemicals that have deteriorated into a volatile state and discoveries of military souvenirs.

Hamblin said the Dane County bomb squad responded to a recent incident in the neighborhood of his house involving a family who had discovered a Japanese hand grenade from World War II in its house.

In the past, many more farmers and landowners would use dynamite to clear their property of trees and brush. As dynamite ages, the chemicals in it become increasingly volatile.

Hamblin said every year there is at least one instance the bomb squad responds to in which someone finds old dynamite in the old barn or shed behind his or her house. Hamblin said the squad had also in the past responded to instances of chemicals used in science experiments that had been allowed to stagnate into a volatile state.

Currently, a sheriff’s deputy in a special bomb suit has to go into the situation and carry the potentially explosive parcel.

“One of the first things we do to a suspicious package is X-ray it,” Hamblin said. “These robots are also outfitted with equipment and can be manipulated to do that on the spot.”

The robot would only be dispersed to situations where there is already suspicion of explosive materials. Scanning for suspicious materials will still be the duty of sheriff deputies and the bomb squad’s bomb-sniffing dog.

Dane County’s dog was dispersed to the 2002 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Milwaukee. Hamblin said sheriff’s deputies led the dog through rooms like catering and equipment rooms that contained many boxes to scan for bombs, a task which the robot would not be able to do.

Milwaukee County’s sheriff cited the cost of transportation when declining the offer of the robot.

“Our practice in Dane County has been that [when] we travel outside of the county, we bill the requesting agencies,” Hamblin said. Hamblin said he didn’t think his department had yet received payment for the use of their dog at the All-Star Game.