Los Altos police reported a hand grenade was purchased for $2 May 18 at a garage sale in the 700 block of Anderson Drive.
“Someone picked up what looked like a Word War II-era grenade,” according to a spokesperson on the department’s Facebook page.
“The seller was unaware of what they were selling and believed that it might have been a paperweight,” said Los Altos Police Lt. Ryan Burke. “They did not have any other similar items and they were unsure of where it originally came from.”
Burke said the buyer “drove around with it for a few hours, still believing it was a paperweight, until they decided to do an internet search and realized that it might be an explosive.”
Once determining they were dealing with a live grenade, police contacted the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad. The squad transported the grenade to the El Monte and Interstate 280 cloverleaf, where it was safely detonated.
Burke said traffic was temporarily shut down during the detonation.No injuries or damage were reported.
Sunday’s incident marked the third reported WWII-era grenade finding in the Los Altos area since 1996.
In 1996, a grenade described as a Japanese mortar was found in a Los Altos garage. In 2021, a leaky grenade was found in a dresser drawer at a Los Altos residence. Bomb crews detonated the grenade in the back yard.
Drone fire in Mountain View
Mountain View firefighters last Friday extinguished a fire in a pickup truck that was ignited by a drone.
The city’s fire department received a call of an early-afternoon fire May 16 in the 1400 block of Wildrose Way. Units arrived to find an active fire coming from the interior of pickup truck parked near the side of the road. Firefighters quickly extinguished the flames.
Mountain View firefighter paramedics treated one adult male for minor burns, who declined transport to the hospital.
The origin of the fire was a drone left charging on the passenger seat of the vehicle. The cause of the fire was related to the drone’s lithium-ion battery charging system. The Mountain View Police Department provided traffic control for 30 minutes while fire units and equipment were on the scene.
Estimated damage to the vehicle and the drone is $10,000.
Burglary suspect arrested
Mountain View police detectives May 7 arrested a suspect responsible for a series of commercial burglaries.
According to police, many of the burglaries committed by the suspect were captured on video surveillance and led to the identification of 28-year-old Mountain View resident Walter Chicas as the suspect. Chicas is charged with 23 counts of burglary. He was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail.
– Town Crier Staff Report
