Posted on 06/20/2002 8:29:51 PM PDT by Shermy
Police want to find a red van that may be hauling some dangerous cargo and putting it in the wrong hands. A boy claims that the van is where he got hold of two grenades he thought were fire crackers.
According to officials at ATF, these were live, military style smoke grenades that can cause serious injuries and burns.
Sirens blared right in front of Detroit Police headquarters as the surrounding streets were being blocked off and officers with the bomb squad suited up. Around 1:30 this afternoon, a man walked into headquarters with a box containing what appeared to be two grenades, and he showed it to Officer Carlos Dennis.
"I took a look at it and advised the lieutenant of what I had. We immediately took the package outside and we notified bomb squad."
Keith, the man who brought the devices to headquarters, says at Mount Vernon and John R. he saw a young boy either buy the explosives from some men in a red Chevy van, or the men dropped it the kid picked it up.
"The van was off to the side and they were unloading the van. And one of the kids came walking up towards me and I asked him what he had. And when I looked at it, he said it was fire works. But looking inside the box, there were grenades," Keith explained.
Keith gave the boy $5 for the devices he had no doubt were real, and then he drove straight to headquarters.
"I took my time driving because I didn't know if I hit a bump or something they would go off. But, like I said, they just need to get somebody over there. It's a red Chevy van. If anybody notices, they need the call the police as soon as possible."
Action News talked to a sergeant with the bomb squad after he picked up the devices and secured them to be detonated.
"They appeared real, they appeared to be two be military grenades of some sort," he said.
"You handle these things for a living, but knowing these were in the hands of children at one point, what goes through your mind?" Channel 7's Kimberly Craig asked.
"It's a scary situation. They can go off at any time, children don't know how to handle it."
Police are searching for the newer red Chevy extended panel van because their witness says it appeared they had boxes and boxes full of the smoke grenades.
___________
Slightly different story from another station:
WWII Grenades Sold As Fireworks
Two World War II hand grenades caused a scare at the Detroit Police Department headquarters Thursday, after someone brought them to the building for inspection.
The grenades were brought to the station by a man who claimed that the explosives were being sold in his west side Detroit neighborhood, according to Local 4. The grenades were being sold as fireworks, but made one resident of the neighborhood suspicious.
The man said that he tried to call 911, but getting assistance took too long, so he brought the grenades to police headquarters.
Police rushed the grenades outside and area surrounding police headquarters was sealed off. The bomb squad was called to the seem and the devices were disposed of accordingly. ...
Aren't these available by mail-order someplace?
Still, the police handled it correctly. Military incendiary and white phosphorus grenades look identical to harmless smoke grenades except for the exterior coloring.
Smokes, WP, and incendiarys all share the same detonator and elongated cylindrical shape.
Cheaperthandirt.com (MN) used to sell smoke grenades, I'm not sure if they still do.
Smoke grenades are a fire hazard, much like Great-Uncle Roy and his pipe. But other than that, they are just another fire-work, or pyro-technic. Great for 4th of July or marking an LZ.
I don't think the police over-reacted by calling in Lefty and his buddies from EOD, but the whole thing, especially the media reaction and mis-characterization of it, is stupid.
/john
No, they probably didn't need to call EOD. Good bunker drill for those guys though. And a good call as far as the City Attorney and Risk Management Dept is concerned.
/john
/john
Albeit a whole lot of retired or former military EOD troops are now doing the same thing on the civvie side of the fence the dealing's with "military ordanace" is just something "not" taught enough to PD/FD/DPS Bomb Squads IMHO .......and experience.
I'd say over reacting with regards to UXO is never a bad thing. I have scraped a whole lot of people off the ceiling who "thought" they new what they were doing.
Stay Safe !
"We immediately took the package outside and we notified bomb squad."
"I took my time driving because I didn't know if I hit a bump or something they would go off..."
No,they can't. You have to pull the pin and release the handle first. Even then,they are SAFER than things like a M-80 commercial fireworks. They don't even explode,they just got "pop" and start releasing colored smoke.
children don't know how to handle it."
Arrarently,neither does a sgt from the Detroit bomb squad.
Probably. They're pretty harmless.
Military incendiary and white phosphorus grenades look identical to harmless smoke grenades except for the exterior coloring.
I don't know about now,but they didn't when I was in the army. Smoke grenades looked like long tin tomato cans. I don't remember right now what incendiary grenades looked like,but know they were slightly different in appearance. As for the willie pete,there was no way anybody could ever confuse one of these for a smoke grenade. They looked closer to the old WW-2 "pineapple grenade",but were larger and painted apple green.
Besides,ALL of these had what they were stenciled on the sides of them,and the smoke grenades even had the color stenciled on.
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