McCOMB — A man weeding his yard Monday found a World War II-era practice hand grenade that authorities say could have caused harm despite its age.
Dewitt Tucker tells the Enterprise-Journal he was working in tall grass around his front porch and yanked up the grenade with a handful of grass.
“When it fell out of the grass, I knew what it was,” Tucker said. “I told my wife, ‘That’s a grenade.’ ”
McComb Deputy Police Chief Scott McKenzie called the device “an old pineapple grenade.”
The officers said a hole in its bottom indicated the grenade was designed for training simulations and not combat. Still, they said, it could have caused harm if it exploded.
Simulation grenades are hollowed through the center and when detonated, most of the force of the explosion goes out the bottom, said Sgt. Lyle Tadlock, an Army reservist. However, it can still expel some shrapnel, he said.
The Tuckers were evacuated as a precaution and a bomb squad from the Clinton Police Department took the grenade to Clinton for disposal, McKenzie said.
Police said since the grenade has been destroyed, they are unlikely to be able to trace how it ended up in the Tuckers’ yard.
Officers said the area of east McComb used to be home to many former military personnel and the grenade might have been an armed forces souvenir.
“Years ago they didn’t keep track of stuff as well as they do today,” McKenzie said, referring to such souvenirs.
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