JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Residents of an Arlington neighborhood are feeling relieved after the Jacksonville Bomb Squad deemed a grenade safe. The grenade was found by family members who were cleaning out a home on Ector Road North, not far from Merrill and Rogero roads.
The house where the grenade was found was being gutted and there was a dumpster out front to discard any trash.
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Residents living nearby said it was a shock to see their road closed off by police in their normally quiet neighborhood.
"At first we didn’t have no idea what was going on. They just came and blocked the street off and after that they let us know it was a grenade. I don’t know if it was live but they had to come and disassemble it," said neighbor Julian Williams.
Police pounded on doors in the middle of the day on Saturday warning neighbors that whoever was gutting the house found a grenade.
"I’m glad it didn't blow up, if it was live. It would have been really bad, (with) smoke everywhere," Williams said.
Fortunately, the bomb squad got to the grenade and was able to render it safe, much to the relief of neighbors, including June Guinn, who walks her dog through here every day.
"I had another knock at the door and it was a friend saying oh my God there’s a bomb scare," said Guinn. "It's kind of scary. I thought, oh my God, what's next?"
Now neighbors said they hope the rest of the work to clear out the house comes with a lot less excitement.
No one knows where the grenade came from, and many suspect it may have belonged to the previous owner of the home.