An Austin resident who bought several boxes at an estate sale got an unexpected and dangerous surprise this month: five live World War II-era grenades mixed in with the contents.
The Austin Police Association (APA), which represents Austin police officers, announced the discovery in an Instagram post earlier in October. According to the post, the buyer began sorting through the boxes after the sale and found what looked like old military grenades. Austin Police Department (APD) Bomb Squad technicians were called in and confirmed the devices were live and active.
Responding APD officers secured the area and set up a perimeter to keep nearby residents safe while bomb squad specialists made their way to the scene.
Sgt. Issa Kafena, supervisor of the APD Bomb Squad, told Fox News Digital that technicians recovered five grenades in all. While they couldn’t pin down an exact manufacture date, Kafena said the grenades appeared to be roughly 80 years old.
The buyer, who Kafena said he believed had a background with the FBI, recognized the danger right away and called 911 rather than handling the items further. Patrol officers responded first and then called in the bomb squad.
Kafena did not respond to this particular call himself, but he emphasized that age doesn’t make military ordnance safe.
“All ordnance … there’s an inherent danger to any and all of it, especially if it’s military ordnance,” Kafena said. “It’s designed to hurt and kill people.”
He said the grenades could have seriously injured someone had they gone off as intended.
Not as rare as you’d think
The APA called it an “unusual call,” but Kafena said finding old military explosives isn’t actually that uncommon for his unit.
“It’s more common than you think,” Kafena said.
He said the bomb squad handles more than 400 deployments a year, including roughly 150 to 175 call-outs, many of them involving discovered military ordnance or equipment. The unit’s territory stretches well beyond city limits.
“In this region, we cover 8,400 square miles in the 10-county capital area of government’s region,” Kafena said. “And we go all over the central Texas area for calls like this fairly frequently.”
Once the grenades were recovered, the bomb squad safely disposed of and destroyed them, Kafena said.
His advice for anyone who stumbles across similar items, whether at an estate sale, in an attic or anywhere else: don’t touch them.
“If you ever find it, don’t touch it, call 911 immediately and have the bomb squad come out and help address the situation,” Kafena said.
