Grenade found in Saugus

SAUGUS – Firefighters responded to an unusual call Thursday regarding a possible live grenade at 54 Howard St.Fire Chief James Blanchard said a real estate agent was in the process of finalizing a deal to sell a home when she noticed what looked to be a World War II era grenade.Blanchard said he was not 100 percent certain the grenade was authentic, but they weren’t about to take chances. Firefighters called in the State Police Bomb Squad and they took possession of the instrument.”They take it and ascertain if it’s real and if they can’t tell they detonate it,” he said.It is not always easy to pick out the real grenades from the fake ones, Blanchard said, particularly if the fake ones were made to look authentic.The home, Blanchard said, belonged to an older gentleman who could have quite possibly served in World War II and the grenade had been in the house for some time.According to Blanchard, finding relics from WWII is not a complete oddity. While soldiers are now restricted from bringing anything home from the battlefield, regulations were quite loose during WWII.”You could bring home pretty much anything you could fit in your bag,” Blanchard said.He said as a kid he not only remembers the fathers of his friends bringing home relics, but his own father as well.”Everyone did it,” he said.He said the episode also reminded him of a recent incident where a man bought what looked to be an artillery shell at a yard sale.”It turned out to be real,” he said. “Why would you buy that at yard sale anyway? Are you going to turn it into an ash tray?”