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Posted on 01/12/2026 2:26:47 PM PST by DFG
A widow’s donation of her late husband’s belongings forced a Goodwill store in Arkansas to evacuate Friday after employees discovered two grenades inside a box.
Staff at the Jonesboro location on Caraway Road found the military ordnance around 1 p.m. while sorting through donated items, KAIT8 reported. Jonesboro Police Chief Rick Elliott told the station that crews responded after receiving a call about “a suspicious item.”
“Employees were going through donation boxes and found what appeared to be a military-style ordinance,” Elliott said.
The police chief told KAIT8 that an elderly woman had gone through “her deceased husband’s belongings that he brought back from the war, put them all in a box, and brought them up here.” He added, “She didn’t know what was what.”
NEWS UPDATE: Police say a store found grenades in the donations after they say an elderly woman donated her husband’s war belongings.
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An Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit arrived from the Little Rock area to handle the situation. Elliott told KAIT8 that fire and EMS crews remained on standby while technicians secured the devices. The team later detonated the grenades, though Elliott said it remained unclear whether they were live.
Police identified the ordnance as likely dating to the World War II era, Jonesboro Right Now reported. Elliott told the outlet that veterans from those conflicts often brought home souvenirs.
“This is something we’ve seen many times before,” Elliott said. “A word of caution is, when you’re going through your loved one’s belongings, and you see things that are military in nature, some kind of grenade or ordinance round, whatever it could be, just leave it as is. Contact the police department and let us come and deal with it.”
Brandon Lamb, a shopper who arrived during the evacuation, praised the quick response.
“Anytime something like that happens, you get a grenade come through, you don’t want it to go off with all the citizens around,” Lamb said. “It’s a good thing that it got caught by personnel.”
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Oh, come on, Just pull the pin and throw it in a safe direction. Then you will know...
I would hope cops understand the difference between "ordinance" and "ordnance" when they're out doing enforcement work.
Getting the two confused could be problematic.
He showed me a 'collection' of M-67 grenades that he had 'procured' from the grenade range over the years.
I haven't spoken to him in years, hope he didn't blow himself up.
My Grandfather(A Marine the Pacific during WWII) brought home a Samurai Sword he picked off a dead Japanese Soldier. My Grandmother gave it to a friend of the family after he passed.
I suppose they’ll also turn up their noses at my grandfather’s flamethrower.
Here I am testing it out.
I had a good friend at Ft. Riley who was commander of the EOD detachment. He had lots of stories about the times they were called off-post for things found in people’s attics, basements, etc. dating back to WWII, Viet Nam, etc.
I remember my dad had a 20mm round, but it a small hole in the shell casing so there was no powder.
I read that most swords issued to Japanese officers were basically decorative reproductions but some were legit priceless
1000 year old Samurai swords
That needs a label: Property of ICE, do not pull.
Whoa
My great aunt told me her brother came home with his gun. He went to her apartment first stop getting back home, no taxi would pick him up. (?)
He left the rifle in her house. She didn’t want it there. After years of asking home to do something with it she wrapped it in a blanket and took it across the street threw it in the Bronx River.
That’s what she told me
Sadly no one ever had it tested. It might be worth nothing, or it might be worth a fortune.
It might blow up pretty good
A Samurai Sword?
Why doesn’t something like this ever come my way?
Some years back, I heard about a local estate auction where somebody rooting through an old box of stuff found some WWII land mines and alerted the auction staff. They were not sold, but I never heard whether they were live or training dummies.
Another time at a flea market, a seller I knew had a dummy RPG on his table. It was clearly marked as non-lethal, with the blue painted warhead. Some moron saw it and called the police. They showed up and homeland security was with them.
They gave the seller a real hard time, and of course, they confiscated the fake weapon. I wonder which one of them took it home?
At the same market, a dummy Korea-vintage air-to-air missile showed up. It was not marked but it was polished aluminum with a chrome plated warhead, not something you would see on a live missile.
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