LONGVIEW — A search for items to sell in a garage sale turned up an unexpected artifact for a Kalama woman and her daughter over the weekend: a real hand grenade.
The original 911 call came from the daughter, who reported Saturday afternoon that her mother found the device, according to Cowlitz 911 dispatch logs. Kalama Police investigated the call and requested the Portland Bomb Squad investigate.
The grenade appeared to be real, but it was inert, Portland Police Bureau Lt. Greg Pashley said in an email: “It did not pose any danger to the public.”
The mother told officers she knew about the grenade, which belonged to her deceased husband who was a military veteran, Kalama Police Chief Ralph Herrera said. But she’d forgotten it was still among his belongings.
“It was an older grenade, the kind you’d typically find replicas of that would be inert,” Herrera said.
