It sat there, a live grenade secured only by its pin, on a crosswalk in the middle of Palm Coast Parkway just east of Belle Terre Parkway, until a driver–38-year-old Kelly Allen of Palm Coast–noticed it as she was passing by Tuesday.
FlaglerLive obtained an image of the grenade as it was relayed to the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Bomb Squad through the robot camera the squad deploys at most such incidents. The robot, a Remotec Andros F6A, is equipped with a surveillance camera. The image shows the grenade still in the roadway at 7:31 p.m. Tuesday evening. The robot picked it up moments later. Allen had spotted the grenade at 5:50 p.m. The discovery shut down that intersection of Palm Coast for about two hours.
The grenade, which was confirmed to have been live, has since been detonated. The detonation took place Tuesday evening at Hargrove Grade. “The little evidence that was recovered after the explosion was taken to St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office to be processed,” a brief incident report filed by the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office Tuesday indicates.
Other than revealing the name of the person who discovered the grenade, the incident report reveals little that wasn’t known and reported Tuesday evening. The St. Johns bomb squad was called at 6:09 p.m. and reported to the scene at 7:20 p.m. “The grenade was removed from the roadway without incident,” and once at Hargrove Grade (which the incident report referred to only as “the secure location”) the squad had the Palm Coast Fire Department stand by while the grenade was being destroyed.
In an interview Thursday Flagler County Sheriff Jim Manfre said the investigation was continuing, but he said he could not answer more specific questions, such as whether the object had been determined to have been dropped there intentionally or by mistake. A detective has been assigned to the case.
It is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, to possess a grenade in Florida. If harm were to have resulted from the grenade, penalties range up toa first degree felony, depending on the nature of the damage or the injuries.
The grenade was determined to be an Mk 2 type that detonates with a five second delay, once activated.
Gia says
Some evil in Palm Coast wants to kill people.
Joe Joe says
Hard t kill someone with the pin still in it. Most likely belonged to someone heading to or from the VFW by motorcycle…
Ken Dodge says
Whether hard to kill or not, why would someone be riding around with a live hand grenade?
Kalala says
A child or some curios young teen could have picked that up. Great job Kelly for calling it in. I’m sure you saved someones life.