An individual discovered what appeared to be a hand grenade in the waters of Cooley Landing in East Palo Alto at around 1:40 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 4.
An individual wading in the Bay saw something that resembled a grenade, removed it from the water, placed it on the shore, and then called the police. East Palo Alto (EPA) Police responded quickly and blocked off the area as a precaution. Menlo Park Fire District later arrived, prepared to respond in case of an explosion.
The suspected grenade was deemed “potentially hazardous” by EPA Police. Deputies arrived with a bomb squad truck to defuse and dispose of the explosive. It was sent to bomb technicians for evaluation.
Senior Henry Lucianovic was notified of the incident through PulsePoint, an emergency notification app. Though not permitted to approach the area, Lucianovic was able to speak with officers on the scene. “[Finding a grenade is] very out of the ordinary,” Lucianovic said. “I talked to police officers; they thought it was out of the ordinary too.”
Most often, recovered grenades are antique, stored by war veterans as trophies in their homes. “It’s never like you come across it randomly,” Lucianovic said. “If you do, it’s not something that happens often.”
Lucianovic had a guess for a possible source of the grenade. “Some people use incendiary devices to fish, which is illegal. But [the potential grenade] could have been maybe an unexploded bomb that they had used to try to explode fish, to get fish out of the water,” he said.
“It’s not something people should worry about or at least lose sleep over,” Lucianovic added. “It’s something that happens every once in a while, and it usually just turns out to be an old grenade.
The EPA Police Department has reminded community members not to handle suspicious items and to contact law enforcement directly instead. “Members of the public should never touch, move, or handle items that appear to be explosive or otherwise hazardous.”
