Two grenades found in two weeks

For the second time in two weeks, Greater Sudbury Police Services were called to a scene where a military grenade was found.

On Sept. 15 at around 3 p.m. police had to clear a residence on Frood Road due to the discovery of a grenade, and on Sept. 26, two residences were cleared on Struthers Street after a grenade was found on the lawn of one of the residences.

In both instances the police had to call in their explosives experts to the scene and upon discovering the grenades to be military ordinance, the Canadian Armed Forces had to be called in to dispose of the devices.

“So far from looking at the reports we have no reason or evidence that would suggest that these two are related in any way,” said staff sgt. Mark Brunette.

Brunette explained that during the course of police duties it's not a rare occurrence to receive calls about found explosives or “improvised devices” such as homemade bombs.

Military-issue grenades however are not something that Brunette can recall seeing many of in his experience.

“When it comes to miliary ordinance these are the only two ones that I'm familiar with this year,” he said.

“(Military) firearms are accessible and civilians can acquire them as leftovers from times of conflict, for example long guns like .303's can be converted for personal purposes such as hunting or recreational shooting but as far as grenades I don't see any reason why anybody would be in possession of them or how they would acquire them for that matter.”

Police are still investigating where the grenade was sourced from and who may have been in possession of it.

Three separate detached residences were affected by the grenade that was found on Sept. 26 and police advised the homeowners to vacate their homes; one resident opted to stay in their house.

GSPS explosive technicians attended the scene and police set up a containment area as precautionary measure in the event that the grenade were to detonate.

“The Canadian Armed Forces were called in after it was determined that this was military ordinance,” said Brunette. “If it were an improvised explosive device like a modified grenade it's something that we would have handled here locally.”