Richland Bomb Squad Disposes of Hand Grenade Found in Household Drawer

Before you assume it was deadly, consider it may have been a dud...but...

  Richland Bomb Squad Disposes of Grenade

Saturday afternoon, March 14th around 1:30 PM, The Richland Bomb Squad responded to a home in the 1000 block of Smith Ave. about a strange discovery.

A caller said she and her mother were cleaning out a relative's home, and found a hand grenade in a drawer.

Officers established a perimeter around the home, and the grenade was evaluated to ensure it was 'safe' and then removed from the scene. Police did not specify if they blew it up.

  The Grenade was An Older Military Model

The grenade was most likely a MK 2 model, known as a fragmentation grenade or commonly called a pineapple grenade due to its appearance. First introduced in1918, they were extensively used through WWII, Korea, and in Vietnam until about 1969.

Get our free mobile app

Old hand grenades were often hollowed out, and a plug installed in the bottom, rendering them harmless.  However, most of these were marked "inert" or incapable of exploding.  Sometimes they were mistaken for real models, and the practice of making them into paperweights as has declined significantly.

RPD did not specify if this was a paperweight, but from the image they supplied there's no visible sign of "inert" or a plug the bottom.

Donated grenade Paperweight sets off panic after donation

In February of 2024, in  Abbotsford, British Columbia,  the bomb squad was called after a man donated a hand grenade paperweight to a thrift store.

The military stopped using MK2 models because of the danger from fragmentation chunks to even the thrower if the bomb was detonated too close to them, and the round baseball-style models now used provide a 'better' coverage area.