Tear Gas Blast in Busy Store Was ‘Accident’

It was “strictly an accident” that caused a military tear gas grenade to explode in a crowded Sears department store, making 45 people sick and causing hundreds of gasping shoppers to flee, a store official said Friday.

Holiday shoppers once again strolled through the store a day after the mishap, although its basement level was cordoned off by yellow police ribbon and a faint odor of tear gas remained in the air.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Tennise Allen said there did not appear to be any criminal intent in the incident, although the department’s bomb experts are investigating why security guards at the store put the grenade into a desk drawer rather than turning it over to police.

Confiscated From Customer

“The canister had been at Sears’ security for some period of time,” Allen said. “It had been confiscated, supposedly, from a customer.”

Bill Rule, director of public affairs for Sears, Roebuck & Co.’s southern territory, said the grenade apparently had “been there a couple of years.”

Rule said the grenade was found “in an unused desk drawer that was being cleaned out, and as a large handful of basically junk was being pulled from this drawer, it slipped out.”

“It was strictly an accident,” Rule said, stressing that no disciplinary action will be taken against the security guards involved in the explosion.