Toy Grenade Triggers Cautious Response

By Andrew Gorosko

A man who was using a metal detector at Fairfield Hills on the afternoon of Sunday, September 6, got a strong reading on the device, causing him to take a closer look at what lay buried just beneath the ground’s surface.

In digging through the soil, he encountered what he thought was an unexploded hand grenade, prompting him to call local police to alert them of the hazard.

As it turned out, the object was not an actual hand grenade, but simply a toy hand grenade with a metallic part that triggered a reading on the metal detector, police said.

But it took a while to determine that the object actually was harmless, explained police Sergeant Douglas Wisentaner.

Police received a call from the unidentified man at 3:05 pm. He had been using a metal detector in a broad field that lies southeast of the intersection Wasserman Way and Mile Hill Road South, when the device emitted the reading.

“The guy said he had a strong [metal detector] reading,” the sergeant said.

Several police went to the area to secure the perimeter of the incident, Sgt Wisentaner said. Because the object was found buried in an area far removed from the nearest occupied houses along Mile Hill Road South, there was no need for people to evacuate their homes, he said.

Newtown Hook & Ladder firefighters were notified of the situation and stood by at their firehouse.

Town police contacted state police, asking for assistance in investigating the object which had been uncovered, the sergeant said.

A state trooper who is a member of the state police’s bomb squad responded to the scene and determined by about 4:20 pm that the object which was found actually was only a toy, Sgt Wisentaner said.

Based on the condition of the largely plastic object, it had been buried there for at least several years, he said. “It was there for a long period of time,” he said.

The green-colored toy, which was about the size of a lemon, was found in an open area in the general vicinity of several vacant white wood-frame houses which formerly were occupied by Fairfield Hills workers.

There was no criminal aspect to the situation, Sgt Wisentaner said.