WWII hand grenades prompt Globe neighborhood evacuation

Parts of Globe evacuated after grenade finds

Some Globe residents have evacuated the downtown area as several military-grade hand grenades were found as a man was doing yard work at his home. FOX 10's Kenzie Beach reports.

GLOBE, Ariz. - A portion of Globe had to be evacuated for some time on Dec. 15, after hand grenades from the World War II era were turned in to police.

What we know:

City officials posted on Facebook the following closures:

• Pine Street, from Mesquite to Oak Street
• Veteran's Park

The all clear, however, was given shortly before 5:00 p.m.

Dig deeper:

According to officials, an area resident found the grenades, and brought them to police headquarters, where they sat the entire day before Luke Air Force Base members arrived to take them away.

Explosive experts at the scene said that since the grenades date back to the WWII era, the grenades were more difficult to deal with as they are less predictable.

Two of the hand grenades were brought to the police headquarters in downtown Globe. A third was found by investigators at the property of the resident who found the first two.

As for the individual who found them and brought them to police, we have learned the person is fully cooperating with the investigation. We have also learned that officials are looking into the property to see if there are more.

What they're saying:

Globe Fire Chief Gary Robinson says just because the fragmentation devices are decades old does not mean they are not dangerous. Rather, they are more unpredictable due to their age, making it even more important for military personnel themselves to handle them.

"It's nice to have the town back to normal operations. It did impact our city hall for a good part of the day so we'll be able to get people back to normal business in the morning," Robinson said. "Definitely leave it where it's at. Leave it where it's at, make a phone call, we can send people out, either PD or fire, they can take a look if need be they'll secure it and call in the experts to deal with that."

He said all the evacuations and closures are now lifted,  and thanked the community for its patience.

This is not the first time Chief Robinson said they've dealt with this kind of potential emergency in recent years, but he says there is no obvious reason why these hand grenades would be in someone's yard.

What you can do:

The biggest piece of advice for anyone who may find something like this is to not touch anything that resembles a bomb or grenade, and do not bring it to a populated part of a city's downtown area.

Area of the closure