Fake Grenade Causes Scare At Thrift Store

By Samantha Abernethy in News on Mar 11, 2013 6:30PM

A thrift store employee found a grenade in a bag of donated clothing Monday morning. Authorities discovered it was not explosive, but not until after it caused a bit of a panic.

The Unique Thrift Store was evacuated, and traffic was rerouted around the shop in the Belmont Gardens neighborhood while the Bomb and Hazardous Materials units inspected the "pineapple" grenade, along with a SWAT team.

Chicago Police spokesman John Mirabelli told the Tribune it was a "replica grenade" with the inside "gutted." The grenade was blue with a green top and a metal pin still in place.

According to CBS, authorities are "trying to find out if it was just happenstance that the grenade was in the bag of donated clothing, or whether it adds up to a direct threat."