MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A 66-year-old Tenn. Man forced an evacuation and a local media frenzy after he brought a grenade to a firehouse.
Clyde Eldridge had found a grenade at the site of a demolished house and took it as a “souvenir,” despite its possible dangers, according to The Commercial Appeal.
Eldridge kept the explosive rolling around in the bed of his truck until he became concerned with the potential dangers involved with keeping it.
“I wasn’t thinking when I picked that thing up,” he said.
He decided to take the grenade to a Memphis fire station, fearing cops would lock him up for bring it there.
Thursday morning, Eldridge told firefighters about the grenade and offered to bring it from his truck to the firehouse. The firefighters refused.
“They panicked,” Eldrige said. “I was going to bring it to them. They said, ‘No, no, no!’”
Firefighters escorted him to a back room and proceeded to file a bomb threat and evacuated nearby residents and blocked off roads.
Bomb squads later arrived and took the grenade away.
Police tell the Commercial Appeal that the military-grade grenade had actually been hollowed out and wasn’t live, but still had its handle and pin intact.
Local news stations were all over the scene as the incident occurred.
Eldridge said he will never pick up a grenade again.