FALMOUTH, Maine — A Goodwill store in southwestern Maine was evacuated Wednesday after someone reportedly donated a grenade.
The Goodwill store in Falmouth was evacuated and police were contacted after the discovery, according to WMTV.
Falmouth Police Chief John Kilbride said that a fragmentation hand grenade was found by Goodwill employees in a military can, according to WCSH.
Officers did not know if the grenade was real or fake so they contacted the Portland Police Department’s Hazardous Devices Unit to assist, the news outlet reported. It was determined that it was not a live grenade.
Kilbride did say that it was a real grenade but inert. Portland police planned to destroy the grenade, according to WCSH.
Goodwill Northern New England spokesperson Heather Steeves said, according to WMTV, that grenades being dropped off in donations is not unheard of but they do not accept them whether they are live or not.
“We have old antique items in our homes, in our barns that we might want to donate, but just give it an extra glance before you do, because it can be really scary for our employees,” Steeves said, according to the news outlet. “I don’t think this was purposeful or anyone trying to be harmful in Maine. We just have a lot of old stuff. So I think someone probably accidentally donated their grandpa’s old deactivated grenade for some reason. So yeah, no reason to think it was malice.”
It is unclear who dropped off the grenade, but investigators are trying to figure it out, WCSH reported.