A 99¢ Only Store employee got more than he bargained for late Monday evening after finding a grenade sitting on top of a recycling bin near the entrance to the store.
The spooked employee pushed the white cardboard recycling box about six feet away from the entrance and immediately called the Redondo Beach Police Department.
“[Moving it] is not what you want to do with a potentially live explosive,” Redondo Beach Police Sgt Shawn Freeman said. “You should just leave them where you find them.”
The employees at the Redondo Beach store located near the corner of Inglewood Avenue and Manhattan Beach Boulevard took action and quickly evacuated the building.
The Redondo Beach Police Department responded and was unsure of the grenade’s potential explosiveness. It looked like a real grenade, so they took precautions by calling the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Bomb squad as well as securing the 99 cent store and evacuating all surrounding shops.
“We came out here saw the device, it looked like a grenade to us — we then called the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Bomb Squad, “ said Freeman.
The bomb squad suited-up, filled bags with sand from the surrounding landscaping as a precaution from the blast and closed in on the device. They were able to x-ray the bomb and determined there were no live explosives contained in the shell.
“They responded and they were able to look at the bomb and determined it was an inert grenade, not a live grenade, and did not pose a threat to anybody,” said Freeman.
The bomb squad then seized the grenade with the hope of gleaning any additional information about the origins of the device, including fingerprints and other potential evidence.
“Right now they aren’t exactly sure what era of military it’s from,” said Freeman. “How it’s built, how it’s designed, those kind of things.”
Freeman said he hopes that a security camera positioned very near the bomb’s drop-off site will help investigators determine who placed the bomb near the store’s entrance.
“We have no information at this time as to who placed it there or why they placed it there,” said Freeman. “Of course if anybody knows we ask them to call the Redondo Beach Police Department.”
