Police: Man finds grenade in flea-market purchase, brings it to 2nd District
A senior citizen’s bizarre flea-market find led to the evacuation of the building the houses the 2nd and 15th police districts in Northeast Philadelphia Sunday afternoon when the man showed up at the district with a live grenade.
This post has been updated.
A senior citizen's bizarre flea-market find led to the evacuation of the building the houses the 2nd and 15th police districts in Northeast Philadelphia Sunday afternoon when the man showed up at the district with a live grenade.
The man, who cops said was in his 60s, arrived at the district, headquartered at Harbison Avenue and Levick Street, with a plastic-wrapped grenade in hand around 4:40 p.m., according to police. He placed the granade on the counter and told officers that he'd purchased a radio at a flea market earlier in the day, heard a rattling noise in it, opened it and found the grenade inside, police said.
The grenade was live, Sgt. Leo Costello of the 2nd District said, and the building was quickly evacuated as the bomb squad was called. Police weren't sure where the flea market that sold the man the radio containing the grenade was located and said the man did not stay at the district long enough to be interviewed.
"Once they discovered it was a grenade, safety became paramount and we wanted everyone out of the building," Costello said.
The scene was cleared by 5 p.m. and everyone was allowed back inside. There were no reported injuries.