The parents of a three-year-old boy were shocked when their toddler casually brought home a deadly weapon.
The parents were home in the evening of Monday, September 29, when their son returned home, casually carrying a live hand grenade he had discovered outside of his family’s home in Washington state.
The three-year-old brought the grenade into his house on Willard Street in Hardline on Monday evening, according to the Grant County Sheriff’s Office.
His family called 911 around 6.45pm.
The boy’s parents put the weapon in the shed of their home as they waited for police.
Bomb technicians determined that the grenade was live. They took it to a rural area north of the home to dispose of it.
The sheriff’s office later shared images on Facebook of the grenade, showing it covered in rust.
“The grenade was of a type used during the Second World War and had clearly been exposed to the elements for some time,” the sheriff’s office stated.
“It’s not known how the grenade ended up in the family’s front yard, nor how long it had been there.”
The grenade was not military grade, but rather an improvised explosive device (IED) or homemade device inserted in the shell of a grenade, according to Commander Clifford Pratt of the Washington State Police bomb squad.
That actually made it more dangerous to handle, he said.
“They really have no controls, or no quality controls,” Pratt told WTHR.
“We find those insanely volatile because we just don’t know what’s inside of them until we can put the bomb suit down, go down, range, X-ray them and figure them out.”
