Italian Woman Finds Live Grenade in Her Groceries

by Jordan Yerman | March 2, 2007 at 04:22 pm

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While Boston's cops are busy detonating stuff, Bostonian news sites are reporting that other cities' cops get to blow stuff up, too... In this case, however, a Neapolitan septuagenarian's sack of potatoes really did contain an explosive device. Following the story, I was unsure how the grenade ended up "on the ground along with the potatoes" in the first place.

At least it wasn't a Mooninite.

That would have been really dangerous.

Police said the pine cone-shaped grenade, which had no pin and was still active, was the same type used by U.S. soldiers in Europe in World War Two. Authorities believe the mix-up happened at a farm in France, where the grenade was plucked from the ground along with potatoes.

To the woman's relief, police and explosives experts in the small town of San Giorgio a Cremano, near Naples, recovered the grenade and safely detonated it on Wednesday.

But Mauriello was still shaking off her close brush with death. It didn't look like a potato and it was heavier than one. But what if she had cooked it?