Live Hand Grenade Causes Commotion at Amador County Hospice

By Wayne B. Carlson

The Amador County Sheriff´s Office answered a call Friday afternoon that was anything but routine.

Responding to a suspicious circumstance call from the Hospice of Amador Thrift Store, deputies arrived just after 2 p.m. to learn that a store employee had discovered a hand grenade while cleaning out boxes of donated property.

Prior to contacting the Sheriff´s office, an employee had moved the hand grenade to an area at the rear of the building located at 10776 Argonaut Lane in Jackson. The grenade was marked with a faded date stamp of September 1944 and appeared consistent with military ordinance.

ACSO deputies cleared the immediate area and called the Calaveras County Sheriff´s Office Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team to assist. Upon their arrival, an external examination of the grenade was made and a portable X-ray was used to evaluate the grenade.

After it was determined that the grenade was live, an EOD team from Travis Air Force Base was called in to take custody of the military ordinance. The Travis EOD team arrived around 7 p.m., taking the grenade to an undisclosed site for disposal.

Thrift store employees were unable to provide any information as to the source of the box containing the grenade and there was no indication of ownership among the other property found in the box, which contained other dated items.

According to the ACSO news release, there was no information or evidence to support the theory that this was an intentional criminal act.

Printed with permission from the Amador Ledger Dispatch