Grenade Found on Miami Beach Turned Out Just to Be a Novelty Item

We don't mean to impugn the authority of the Miami Beach Police Department, but about an hour-and-a-half ago they told one news station that they were "pretty much 100 percent" certain they had found a live grenade in a man's garage, and then a little more than an hour later...

By Kyle Munzenrieder

December 20, 2013

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We don't mean to impugn the authority of the Miami Beach Police Department, but about an hour-and-a-half ago they told one news station that they were "pretty much 100 percent" certain they had found a live grenade in a man's garage, and then a little more than an hour later another news station reported that the grenade was actually a toy. Whoops.

The incident started earlier today when a homeowner was cleaning out a home at the corner of 44th Street and Royal Palm Avenue that he had been renting out for two years. He was going through the garage when he opened a box and found a grenade-like object in the box and called police.

Naturally, MBPD took all precautions.

"At that point, we backed off; we closed off the 4400 block of Royal Palm," Miami Beach Police Sgt. Bobby Hernandez told WSVN. "We have it completely closed off to pedestrian and vehicular traffic."

Hernandez then told the station that of his 100 percent certainty claim.

The Miami-Dade bomb squad was eventually called in.

Now NBC Miami reports that the bomb squad determined the item was just a "novelty item."

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