Police dispose of live WW II grenade

“He told me he looked at it and didn’t see any holes (where the explosive would have been removed) and said, ‘I thought you might need to look at it,’” Gaissert recalled.

Gaissert summoned detective Ken Harmon and they went into the house where the man opened the chest of drawers and pulled out the grenade.

“It was in pristine condition,” Gaissert said. “Based on my (military) experience, it was a live grenade. It looked like it had just been issued out of the case.”

Following the law enforcement protocol, Gaissert left the grenade on the kitchen table and the department summoned a bomb disposal unit at the University of Georgia. That unit prepared a hole in the back yard, sent in a robot to get the grenade and set a charge, which in turn caused the grenade to explode harmlessly in the hole.

“It was a World War II pineapple grenade apparently brought back by (the late resident of the house) or his brother,” Gaissert said. “There was a scrapbook with a lot of World War II memorabilia, and we concluded that one of them brought back the grenade and it’s been traveling around or sitting there for 65 years.”

Gaissert noted that it was common practice after World War II for soldiers to bring back weapons and other “war trophies,” many of which are still in working condition. Current regulations prohibit that practice.