[Drizzt]

Police Flee HQ As Man Hands Over Grenade

Associated Press Thursday, January 17, 2003

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WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- Winnipeg police have a favor to ask of anyone looking to get rid of a live hand grenade Ñ don't drop it off at the front desk.

Part of police headquarters was evacuated Monday when Melvin McDonald, 79, showed up the front desk with a World War II grenade he had kept for years as a souvenir. The war veteran said he wanted to get rid of it.

"His opening line was, 'I got a grenade,'" Constable Gerry Bernas said. "I knew he wasn't kidding."

The bomb squad and fire department were called and most of the main floor of the Public Safety Building was evacuated.

McDonald apologized after the bomb squad took the grenade away.

Police asked people with grenades or other explosive to let police come and take the explosives away, rather than dropping them off.

"Please don't drop it off on our front counter," Police Constable Bob Johnson said.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2003/01/17/MNgrenade.DTL

[Art Eatman]

:D :D :D.

:neener:,

Art

[KMKeller]

Ask and ye shall receive...

[M2HMGHB]

Wonder if anyone needed a change of underwear?

[DadOfThree]

Ya know, if I had a live grenade and lived in Canada where I could go 5 miles away from everybody, and I wanted to get rid of it, I wouldn't take it to the police station. I would have to try it out. No way I could stop myself. ;)

[answerguy]

What don't they understand about grenades? Was the pin still in it? If it didn't go boom in 5 seconds why evacuate after that?

[jmbg29]

What don't they understand about grenades?The very same things that they don't understand about life itself. Pathetic sheeple don't understand, period.

[M67]

If it didn't go boom in 5 seconds why evacuate after that? You would trust the fuze of a 60 year old grenade to work as advertised? Maybe evacuation was a bit much, but fooling around with old, possibly unstable explosives could easily turn into a Darwin-moment. Just my ¢2.

[Mike Irwin]

"Maybe evacuation was a bit much, but fooling around with old, possibly unstable explosives could easily turn into a Darwin-moment. Just my ¢2."

Lots of people find that out in Europe every year. It's a slow year if 2 or 3 people aren't killed by unexploded ordnance they uncover.

Most of them are farmers and construction workers.

[M67]

Lots of people find that out in Europe every year. I remember a small story in a Norwegian newspaper a few years ago. A couple of kids picked up an AA shell, a dud that had been lying in the ground for more than 50 years. They showed up at a police station and said that the thing had made a strange sound when they picked it up, then it turned warm in their hands...:eek:

[TarpleyG]

Serves them right with their assanine new laws...

GT

[El Tejon]

What a change from the American South. People in Charleston were standing around taking photos of an unexploded arty round and were "excited" to discover it.:rolleyes:

[Gordon]

Ya know what El Tejon said reminded me when I found some ancient Confederate artillery shells when I was 15 cleaning out old attic packed in straw! Damned if I couldn't get the picric acids to go off!:mad:

[answerguy]

You would trust the fuze of a 60 year old grenade to work as advertised? Maybe evacuation was a bit much, but fooling around with old, possibly unstable explosives could easily turn into a Darwin-moment. Just my ¢2.

Well not if the pin were actually pulled. Might be an interesting new thread for black powder. What's the longest hang fire you ever had?