Five live grenades dating to World War II were discovered inside boxes bought at an estate sale in Austin, Texas, prompting a response from the Austin Police Department bomb squad. The Austin Police Association announced the discovery in early October. The buyer recognized the danger immediately and called 911, which set the emergency response in motion.
Patrol officers arrived first, secured the scene and set up a perimeter to keep nearby residents away from the area while the situation was assessed. Officers were focused on keeping people out of harm's way until specialists could take over. The APD Bomb Squad then recovered all five grenades, and the devices were safely destroyed after recovery.
Bomb squad supervisor Sgt. Issa Kafena spoke to reporters about the case. The grenades are estimated to be about 80 years old, but the exact manufacturing date could not be determined. Kafena stressed that age does not make military ordnance safe. The devices were designed to injure and kill, and they remain dangerous decades after they were made, which is why he urged caution.
The case highlights the broader workload of bomb squads. The Austin unit handles more than 400 deployments a year, and about 150 to 175 of those are call-outs for discovered ordnance, meaning old or abandoned explosives that residents or businesses come across rather than active threats. Its coverage area spans 8,400 square miles across 10 counties, a large territory that the unit must reach when a call comes in.
Officials gave a clear message to the public: do not touch old explosives, and call 911 if one is found. Moving or handling aged devices can be risky even when they appear inert, so the safest course is to leave the item alone and wait for trained technicians. Households clearing out estates, storage units or inherited belongings are often the ones who come across such items.
Similar discoveries have happened elsewhere. In the Czech Republic, a father and son found more than 150 artillery shells, a discovery that led to a two-day bomb squad operation to remove them safely. In a separate case, a Transportation Security Administration officer found a spent smoke grenade in a carry-on bag at an airport in upstate New York. Together, the cases show how military leftovers continue to surface years and even decades after conflicts end.