An Austin resident got an alarming surprise while sorting through boxes bought at an estate sale: five live grenades dating back to the World War II era.
The Austin Police Association said the buyer found the grenades among several boxes purchased at the sale. Austin police officers secured the area and kept people nearby at a safe distance while waiting for the bomb squad.
The squad recovered all five devices. Sgt. Issa Kafena, who supervises the unit, said they appeared to be about 80 years old, though officers could not determine their exact age. They were still dangerous, he said, and could have caused serious injuries if they had detonated.
Kafena said the buyer appeared to understand the risk and called 911. The person may have been a former FBI employee, he added, and took precautions before police arrived.
Finding old military explosives may sound unusual, but Kafena said his team responds to such calls regularly. The unit handles more than 400 deployments a year, including roughly 150 to 175 call-outs. Many involve military ordnance or equipment found across the 10-county, 8,400-square-mile region it serves.
Bomb squad members safely destroyed the grenades after recovering them. Kafena urged anyone who finds a suspected explosive to leave it alone and call 911.
Other recent discoveries have included more than 150 World War II-era artillery shells found by a father and son metal detecting in a Czech forest last fall. This autumn, airport security officers in upstate New York found a spent smoke grenade hidden inside an aerosol container in a traveler’s carry-on bag.
