Kids find live grenade while swimming

EDON, Ohio (WANE) - A group of kids found an active military hand grenade in Nettle Lake over the weekend when a 14-year-old first felt it with his foot under water and then pulled it out.

Williams County Sheriff Kevin Beck said he’s never had anything like this happen in his 26 years on the job. The Toledo Bomb Squad made their way out to the area and eventually had to call an Army base in Georgia to find out exactly what kind of device it was and how to deal with disposing it.

Beck said had it been a chemical device, it would have made things even more complicated. “That indicated if it was in fact a chemical agent, then the U.S. Army would have to respond to collect it themselves and we wouldn’t have been able to detonate the item there.”

Bomb squad members said the grenade was so rusted they were concerned it could detonate at any point and didn’t want to have to move it far. They decided a small wooded area behind the family’s lake cottage would work.

Frank Bernath has owned the cottage for four years now and said when his daughter-in-law called to tell him what was happening, he couldn’t help but shake from fear.

“I thought of my babies, my grandkids and people around them that could get hurt, especially after they found out it was a live grenade,” he said.

Under military direction, police dug a two-foot deep hole and placed the grenade inside. They packed the hole with concrete and dirt and then set the bomb off. When all was said and done, seven hours later, all that was left is a small hole on the ground and a little dent in the cottage siding. Police said a small piece of concrete caused the minor damage.

Bernath said it will always serve as a reminder of how lucky his family is and that no one was hurt.

“They said it’s so fragile that another movement could have set it off where then the boy was moving it around with his foot. But I don't want to live through it again, but it could have been worse,” he said.

Police said they may never know how the hand grenade got there, but they did learn it was from the Vietnam era. They also said it’s unlikely there are any more in the water.