Appetite for Destruction? Man Heads to Taco Bell With Risky Find

No one hurt in Ocala, Fla., after man shows up with hand grenade he found while magnet fishing
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 28, 2019 6:15 AM CST
Man Finds Grenade, Heads Straight to Taco Bell
This Aug. 3, 2017, file photo shows a Taco Bell sign at a restaurant in Hialeah, Fla.   (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)

The smart thing to do upon finding a hand grenade is to make a run for it—not make a run for the border. But a man in Florida decided he'd cap off his magnet fishing trip in Ocklawaha with some Meximelts in Ocala, and he opted to bring the World War II-era explosive he'd found with him. The Washington Post reports the unnamed man and a woman companion inexplicably made the 17-mile drive to Taco Bell after their day on the water Saturday afternoon, then made the call to police about their find, which remained in their vehicle's trunk. The Ocala Police Department's bomb squad showed up to defuse the situation, and possibly the grenade. The Post and Gizmodo note that, based on the image the cops posted, the weapon appeared to be an Mk 2 "pineapple" grenade; all the police would say is that it had been "verified as an authentic WWII hand grenade."

Lt. Angy Scroble tells the Post the grenade seemed rusted and not in danger of detonating, and that officers on the scene secured the parking lot to keep customers away while they checked everything out. Gizmodo notes a BBC report from last year showing that live ammo like grenades often pops up when people are magnet fishing, the on-water version of metal detecting. A police incident report seen by the Post notes the grenade in Ocala was to be "destroyed off site at a later time." Scroble notes that military training exercises have been known to take place in the nearby Ocala National Forest, though she wasn't sure if that included in World War II. She says the couple wasn't charged. (Cops found the remains of a meth lab inside an Iowa Taco Bell.)

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