La Pine litter patrol turns up grenade; bomb squad called
Someone conducting a litter patrol along Burgess Road in La Pine Saturday afternoon found something else entirely – a dangerous, re-activated military training grenade that prompted call-out of the Oregon State Police Bomb Squad from Salem to safely dispose of it, authorities said.
Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies were called out to Burgess Road near Ponderosa Way around 2:50 p.m. on the report of a military-type grenade being found beside the road, said Sgt. Kevin Dizney.
The grenade was found on open land, with no nearby homes or other structures, and is “believed to have been there for some time,” Dizney said in a news release Sunday. Due to the location, no road closures were necessary.
The OSP Bomb squad from Salem responded to collect the grenade. Dizney said determined it “was a military training grenade that had been re-activated and was presently dangerous.”
It’s unknown how the grenade had been in the spot where it was found, but Dizney said there were “no indications of an intentional criminal action against any person.”
However, Dizney said it’s a crime to manufacture a destructive device — including to make an inert training device active and thus dangerous.
The sheriff’s sergeant reminded citizens who find a suspicious item “not to touch or examine” it, but call police from a safe distance – “to prevent any accidental detonation” from a cellphone call.
