A surprise donation caused a brief scare at Iola Senior Citizens Inc. Thrift Store, 233 N. State St., Wednesday afternoon.
A volunteer who was sorting through a bag of donated clothes found what appeared to be a military-style hand grenade. Staff immediately called law enforcement and evacuated the building.
The item was a training hand grenade and not a live explosive device. The responding officer verified it was not a threat and the store was reopened in less than an hour.
Staff handled the situation correctly, Police Chief Jared Warner said Thursday.
“They did the right thing by calling 911. That’s the most crucial thing,” Warner said. “Don’t touch it. We’ll come out and determine if it’s safe, and if we need another opinion, we’ll call explosive experts to make that determination.”
The device was an older style pineapple-shaped grenade including a pin. The bottom of the grenade, however, had been removed and the inside was hollow.
Such training grenades are used to teach the proper and safe handling of grenades, without the risk of explosion. The grenades are not illegal and are readily available online or at a military surplus store, Warner said.
Dimity Lowell, who serves on the thrift store’s board of directors, said the donation that included the device had been dropped off so she could not identify its source. In the future, she asks donors to notify staff if a donation might be misconstrued as suspicious.
About eight people were inside the building at the time, including four customers. Rhonda Kagle was one of them. The other customers immediately left their purchases as the building was evacuated, but she waited. She said she didn’t believe it was a threat and wasn’t concerned.
The police department receives calls about suspicious items every few months, Warner said. Around July 4, someone reported a suspicious device that was determined not to be a threat.
“Those calls do come every so often and most of the time they’re nothing, but it’s always good to call us and take appropriate measures to get it checked out,” he said.
Lowell said someone who heard about the discovery offered a $20 donation to take possession of the training grenade.
