Wisconsin Goodwill Receives Grenades In Donation Box

A Wisconsin Goodwill store employee found quite a surprise when three hand grenades were uncovered in a donation box.

The Goodwill store in Franklin, Wisconsin, discovered the grenades on Saturday. Police were called to the scene in the afternoon to check out the scary donation, and employees left the Wisconsin Goodwill store because of safety precautions, according to the Journal Sentinel.

Milwaukee Police Department’s Hazardous Devices Unit was called in to assist the Franklin Police Department as they inspected the donation of weapons. The hand grenades could be extremely dangerous if they were live grenades and detonated accidentally or intentionally.

It is not everyday the Goodwill workers find such dangerous objects in their donation items. Most of the time, the workers go through boxes and bags of clothes, shoes, and household items. Most of the time the workers in Wisconsin never come across weapons in a donation box or bag.

Not knowing whether the grenades were put in the donation box on purpose or accidentally made the situation at the thrift store a bit tense. The police wanted to make sure they knew what they were dealing with before the workers were allowed to come back to the building safely.

Eventually, the officers were able to tell the Goodwill workers they were able to return inside the building to work because the grenades were inert and would not harm anyone, according to UPI. Because they weren’t a danger to people, the police did not think the donation was meant to scare or harm anyone in that Wisconsin Goodwill store.

Although there many be some people in Wisconsin who would love to have some grenades as conversation pieces and nothing else, Goodwill does not sell weapons of any kind and does not take weapons donations. Although the grenades were inactive and would not explode, Goodwill will not be offering these pieces for sale to the people of Wisconsin, or anywhere else.

Even if hand grenades aren’t your thing, there are plenty of finds in a Goodwill store that could easily serve as conversation pieces or add to a collection of oddities. The blog Weird Thriftshop Finds lists oddities found in Goodwills and other stores, some in Wisconsin, which have many shaking their heads and wondering how these pieces came to be to begin with.

For example, the blog features a board game, entitled “Beheaded.” While it may sound like a game linked to ISIS and inappropriate for family game night, it found its way to a Maryland thrift shop. In Wisconsin, a Goodwill offered up a sign with a moose which proclaims “Self Esteem” for no particular reason.

It’s plausible to think that the Wisconsin Goodwill saw plenty of weird things which may have gone straight into the trash before the hand grenades incident, and it is likely that those employees will see many more. For every strange thing that makes it to the floor to be sold, imagine all the things that didn’t make it to the floor for whatever reason.

Thankfully, the workers at the Wisconsin Goodwill have walked away from this incident with a funny story to tell. Perhaps the incident in Wisconsin will make them a bit more cautious the next time they open a donation box and look inside.

[Photo by Thomas Niedermueller/Getty Images]