Busy Police Station Gets Busier When Grenade Is Dropped Off

The police station nearest Wednesday’s train crash was on full tactical alert, dealing with the deadly crisis, when a woman walked in with a live World War II grenade.

“She put [the grenade] on the counter, and she said, ‘I have this grenade here,’ ” almost like it was a doughnut,” said Officer Kenneth Edwards, who was at the front desk. “It was probably the worst possible time for it to happen.”

The woman, in her 70s, said she had found the grenade in the garage of her home, where she has lived for about 40 years, Edwards said. She had wrapped it in a plastic bag and brought it to the station on San Fernando Road, a little over a mile from the train crash, about 9:45 a.m.

The bomb squad was notified, the building was evacuated, and San Fernando Road was blocked off between Fletcher Drive and Glendale Boulevard, said Lt. Ruben De La Torre. The bomb was put in a containment canister and detonated safely.

The woman, whom police would not identify, “almost passed out when I told her it was a live grenade,” Edwards said. “All of a sudden she was feeling kind of queasy.”