GRENADE, from page 1 Found inoperable
By Daily Press staff
RAND HDQTRS. — One of the world’s largest global think tanks was surrounded by several squad cars and the bomb squad on Thursday after a RAND employee brought a grenade to work.
It wasn’t just any old grenade, but a really old one — originating from World War II that the employee’s father had held onto. The employee stumbled upon the aging explosive in his deceased father’s garage where it has been stored for years.
The RAND employee called Santa Monica Police at 11:25 a.m. on Thursday asking questions about hand grenades that still had pins in them. Upon further questioning, police learned that the man had brought the device with him to work and it was in his trunk parked in RAND’s subterranean garage.
Police called in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Bomb Squad and sealed off access to parking garage. The grenade was found to be inoperable and police seized it.
“It’s not uncommon for people to find these types of things when cleaning out family members possessions but our advice is to contact the police department and we’ll come and get it,” said SMPD Lt. Frank Fabrega. “These things over time can become unstable.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 1, 2006. Read the original PDF.