A live hand grenade was found at a McDonald’s in Thurmont, Maryland on Saturday.
The military-grade hand grenade was found at the McDonald’s parking lot in the afternoon, according to the Associated Press . A landscaping crew was cleaning up the area and found the scary object around 1 p.m.
Dale Ednock, the bomb technician who arrived at McDonald’s, said the bomb was actually lodged in the McDonald’s parking lot pavement and had been there for some time. He believes it was left there accidentally, possibly several decades ago, as a relic of the military base located in Thurmont.
However, the live grenade could have hurt and killed many people if it had gone off, and so the bomb technician and the Office of the State Fire Marshal secured and removed the explosive device about two hours after emergency responders received the call about it, according to The Frederick News-Post .
“If the guy operating the shovel machine had hit it, he would have been killed, no question,” Ednock said.
Employees and customers of the McDonald’s were evacuated, and roads were closed in the area. Close to 50 people were evacuated from the McDonald’s restaurant.
Some people thought the grenade found near the McDonald’s entrance might have been a toy, but an x-ray scan showed the grenade was a live explosive just waiting to go off. Although authorities were not sure what they were dealing with, they treated the object as if it were a live explosive.
People in nearby stores were asked to stay put until the grenade was dislodged from the McDonald’s parking lot safely. They were allowed to leave after the grenade was inspected and removed from the McDonald’s site.
Barricades were used during the extraction in case the explosive accidentally went off, ensuring people would be safe from any flying shrapnel.
Edncok assured everyone that he’d secured the safety on the military explosive. He planned to take it back to the state fire marshal’s office. From there, the military would take the grenade and dispose of it properly.
A crew is supposed to come to the McDonald’s where the grenade was found to survey the site with metal detectors. The crew will be looking for shrapnel or other grenades which could harm innocent and unsuspecting people.
