Inactive grenade leads to evacuation

Amber Willard

RANCHO DISTRICT -- Several homes were evacuated as the Los Angeles

County Sheriff’s Department removed an inert grenade from a residential

area near Jordan Middle School.

A resident in the 500 block of South Mariposa Street called police at

1 p.m. June 6 after seeing the grenade on a retaining wall that separates

her back yard from an alley, police said. It was removed by Sheriff’s

officials at 3 p.m. and placed in a protective case.

The grenade had been hollowed out and resealed along the bottom,

Burbank Police Det. Carl Costanzo said. Police did not think the grenade

was active, but they called in Sheriff’s officials because they weren’t

sure if anything was inside the shell, Police Lt. Bob Giles said.

The grenade was detonated at the department’s firing range near Santa

Clarita, police said.

Students at Jordan Middle School, which is on the same block of

Mariposa Street, were ordered to exit onto Oak Street Tuesday but were

not sent home early. Residents living within 300 feet of the grenade were

evacuated, Giles said.