The Abbotsford Police Department said in a statement on Tuesday that the donor had been using the grenade (not pictured) as a paperweight and had donated it by accident.
Oleg Elkov via Getty Images
A thrift store had a scare after someone donated a hand grenade.The donor told local police that they’d been using the grenade as a paperweight. Local police said the grenade was a decommissioned WWII-era Mills grenade.
A thrift store in Canada had a scare on Monday after staff found a WWII-era hand grenade in their donation bin.
The Abbotsford Police Department said in a statement on Tuesday that it had received a 911 call from the store’s staff on Monday afternoon. CTV News, a local news agency, identified the store as an outlet belonging to the thrift store chain, Value Village.
Officers proceeded to evacuate the store and surrounding businesses “out of an abundance of caution,” per the statement.
The Abbotsford Police Department said it worked with an explosives disposal unit to remove what they later determined to be a decommissioned WWII-era Mills grenade.
The person who made the donation, who CTV News did not name, told the police that they’d been using the grenade as a paperweight and had donated it by accident.
“Well, you never know what you can find when thrifting and yesterday proved that to be true,” the Abbotsford Police Department said on Tuesday.
This isn’t the first time someone has donated a grenade to a thrift store.
In February 2022, the Junction City Police Department said a thrift store in Oregon found a hand grenade inside a box of donated items.
The store, St. Vinnie’s, notified the police, who managed to secure the device for disposal. St. Vinnie’s said they weren’t able to identify who had donated the explosive device.
Representatives for Value Village did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.