Woman Looking for Cat Finds Grenade

Link : http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=816&ncid=816&e=2&u=/ap/20040922/ap_on_fe_st/fake_grenade


WHEELING, W.Va. - A woman looking for a cat in an abandoned house came across what appeared to be a grenade dangling from the ceiling of a room and apparently rigged to explode if someone came through a window, a State Police sergeant said Wednesday.



The grenade turned out to be fake, the type sold at novelty stores, and did not have any explosive materials, said 1st Sgt. D.P. Reider.


"It kind of looked like a booby trap," Reider said.


Anitra Roth, who lives two doors down from the house, discovered the device Tuesday while looking for her aunt's cat, which entered the structure through a broken window. The house has been empty since the owner died two years ago.


Reider said the device, attached to a bungee cord, was dangling from the ceiling. A wire connected to where the pin would have been was tied to a ladder leaning against a window.


Roth found the cat and left the house in South Wheeling but later returned to take photos of the device before calling police. She did not think anyone would believe her, Reider said.


Wheeling police officers, Reider and Mike Fordyce of the State Police Explosives Ordnance Response Team studied the photos before going into the house. Fordyce eventually determined the grenade was a fake.


"I guess this house had been broken into before. It may have been a deterrent," Reider said. "It looked like a real grenade."


Reider said it is unlikely anyone would be charged with a crime since it is not illegal to hang a novelty store item from a ceiling.