CLEMSON, SC – Clemson Police say someone found a live WWII era ‘pineapple’ grenade near a tree on his property.

EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) from another agency was called in to take the grenade and destory it.

Clemson Police posted a picture and this on their Facebook page:

I shouldn’t be surprised anymore about the things people call us for… or the things people just happen to “find” in their homes shoved into boxes, or laying in their yards… or in their homes. Did you notice that part seems to be important? I once found the tail section to a “4 Deuce” mortar laying in the middle of Issaqueena Trail. On another occasion a lady brought a live 120mm mortar to the Police Department after discovering it in an antique box she had bought at a flea market or something similar. She had never been able to actually open the box… if I remember correctly it had been in her closet for close to 20 years before she actually made an earnest effort to get into it. I can only imagine the look of shock when she realized there was live ordinance in it. Why is this important or relevant today? Well pictures are worth a thousand words.

As someone who spent a little over a decade as an Infantryman in the Army, specifically a mortarman, I get asked to identify a lot of ordinance… especially of the explosive nature. It was no surprise when I was told to take a ride with my Captain… who proceeded to inform me that one of our residents had found a grenade in his house. “It’s probably a trainer” was my first reply… “But let’s go get blown up” was my next. I mean… if you’ve done it once… why not do it again? In my case, if you’ve done it more times than you can count on one hand… why not add another. Of course I was joking… I didn’t believe it was live… and I’m not really wanting to get blown up again.

We arrived, spoke with the homeowner that directed us to a tree on the edge of his property… just so happened to be directly beside the Captain’s car… NO. COMMENT. Sure enough, I looked around the tree and saw the “grenade”. A Mk II “Pineapple” fragmentation grenade… olive drab with a yellow ring under the fuse. That was my first concern. I’m too young to have used this particular kind of grenade, but the M68s we use now are olive drab with yellow markings to indicate they are high explosive. Still hoping that the grenade had been de-mil’d, I reached down to pick it up. Yep… that’s about the right weight (1lb)… and there’s not a hole in the bottom. “Captain… this is a live grenade.”

EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) from another agency was called… I looked up the specs of the grenade… we were way too close and decided it wasn’t worth moving. There was a pin in it, and part of the spoon was still there… besides… it had lasted this long. EOD got there and took the grenade with them to be destroyed later and we got out of dodge. The long story about how the grenade ended up in this particular house is logical and the short version is it was brought home from WW2 and essentially passed down through time. When it was found in a box after this transfer of custody… police were called. All and all… it was an interesting day.

As always… be smart, be safe, and for heaven’s sake don’t pull the pin… I mean… have fun.