Woman brings gun, grenade to police

[jeremyferg]

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/ne...8-1540278.html

Woman brings gun, grenade to police

By BEN FINLEY
Bucks County Courier Times

A woman walked into Bensalem's police station Tuesday afternoon carrying a sawed-off shotgun and a rocket-propelled grenade.

She essentially said, “I found these” before Bensalem Sgt. Fred Schumann took the grenade from her and rushed it outside while other cops evacuated the area and called Philadelphia's bomb squad.

The grenade was shaped like a rocket with fins on the back, according to Lt. Karl Mascia. The shell was a faded black color, which led some cops to think it dated back to at least World War II. And the device didn't appear to have drill holes on its covering, which would have indicated a disarmed explosive that you can buy at an Army-Navy store and use as a paper weight.

Schumann and other Bensalem cops placed the bomb in a patch of grass behind the police station and covered the potential explosive with sandbags.

As the bomb squad was headed to Bensalem, the woman said she was moving out of her house of the past 13 years in “The Coves” neighborhood when she found the weapons.

The shotgun was in the attic. The grenade was in a crawl space under the house.

Police declined to identify the woman or where she lives. But they said the house has had at least two previous owners. So, the weapons could've been there for decades.

Sawed-off shotguns are illegal. So are “live” grenades. Mascia said police plan to find out who owned the weapons.

Bomb squad officers examined the grenade before placing it in a red box. Mascia said the cops believed the bomb was inactive. But they took it to Philadelphia, where they will detonate it to find out for sure.

If there's a lesson to be learned from this situation, it's don't take bombs or grenades to the police station, Bensalem Public Safety Director Fred Harran said. Leave explosives where you find them and then call 911.

[knighthawk06699]

Sawed-off shotguns are illegal. So are “live” grenades. Mascia said police plan to find out who owned the weapons.

Sawed off shotguns are not illegal as long as they have a barrel of 18 inches and an overall length of 26 inches. This just proves that education is needed everywhere.

[XD45]

Sawed off shotguns are not illegal as long as they have a barrel of 18 inches and an overall length of 26 inches. This just proves that education is needed everywhere.

tax stamp you can have whatever you shall please

[Brick]

I have heard of many strange things being found in the homes and barns of elderly widows after thier husbands passed. Picric acid in the basement of a deceased chemist and crystalized nitro based dynamite in the barn of an old farmer. Returning soldiers have brought home a lot of strange things!

[bpvet]

Uh oh! They placed it in the RED BOX!!!! That part of the story scared me so much I have to shutter a few minutes.

Can we peons buy a red box???

Will our wife's let us????

WHAT IS A RED BOX???????

Is it a Philadelphia thing? Do you guys have a lot of red box's. Could that be the problem with Nutter?

[Damage control]

WHAT IS A RED BOX???????

My Ex had a pretty big red box




Just say-in

[JoeWilliams]

I heard about that on the radio on the way home yesterday. Darn near wrecked I was laughing so hard, imagine what a pants wetting experience it must have been to have that woman walk up with an old RPG LOL.

[Arcana71]

they took it to Philadelphia, where they will detonate it....

I really hope they're talking about a specific facility that is dedicated to doing exactly this sort of thing. Reading the above quote almost makes it sound as if they're just going to toss it out of a moving car on the Vine Street Expressway.*

*This would, of course, be bad.

[tdyoung58]

I remember back when I was in the military we were digging on Guam and hit a 55lb bomb with a bulldozer.

It didn't explode but you should have seen our GSgt advisor's face when one of the guys brought it in and dropped it on his desk to ask what to do with it.

Yeah, probably not the smartest of people back then . . . '79 I think it was