Dad Searching For His Outdoor Spigot Shut Off Valve Found A Grenade Beside His New House, And Police Blocked The Street Until A Bomb Squad Said It Was Only Smoke

Moving day is stressful enough without a bomb squad. But that is how it went for Mat Reichardt of Portland, Oregon, who found a grenade beside his new home while hunting for something far more ordinary. The story comes from Newsweek.

An outdoor faucet with a garden hose attached to a brick wall.

Reichardt was searching for the shut-off valve for the outdoor spigots when he made the explosive discovery.

“The Former Owner Missed Two Things”

The previous owner, whom Reichardt never met, was an electrician who left instructions all over the house. “He was very diligent about leaving me instructions all over the house,” Reichardt told Newsweek.

“Having said all that, the former owner missed two things. First, he never told me where the shut-off valve for the outdoor spigots is. Second, he left a grenade on the side of the house.”

While looking outside, Reichardt decided to check a rusty old capped pipe he had overlooked in all his earlier attempts. “To my surprise, it lifted right up. It was a canister, not a pipe. I took the lid off and recognized the pin and fuse.”

“I Knew From Video Games That It Could Have Been A Flash, Smoke, Or Thermite Grenade”

It had been 20 years since Reichardt last played a video game, but he recognized what he was holding from Battlefield on his old Xbox. “I knew from video games that it could have been a flash, smoke, or thermite grenade,” he said. “Then I thought, ‘I should probably call the police.’”

That was the right call, according to an expert. Robert Burrell, a senior research fellow at the University of South Florida Global and National Security Institute and a retired U.S. Marine, reviewed the photographs Reichardt shared.

Burrell identified it as most likely a U.S. military grenade with an M201A1 fuze, which is used in both the M18 colored-smoke grenade and the AN-M14 thermite incendiary grenade. He said the design dates back to at least the 1950s.

“The AN-M14 contains a thermite composition capable of producing temperatures exceeding 4,000°F, making it particularly hazardous,” Burrell told Newsweek. “The deteriorated condition of the container suggests prolonged environmental exposure. But that doesn’t make the device inert.”

Police Taped Off The House And Blocked The Street

Reichardt first called the police department’s non-emergency line. Two officers arrived and decided to bring in a bomb squad.

“They taped off the entire house and blocked the street, questioned me, then set an X-ray device next to the grenade,” he said. “That fed images into a computer in their truck, where they determined it was a smoke grenade.”

Because it was military-issued, he says, police told him that per protocol it had to go to a nearby military base for proper disposal.

As for how it got there, Reichardt has a guess he calls complete speculation: “My speculation is that it had something to do with intruder preparedness,” he said. “That’s complete speculation, though, only based on the fact that he seemed prepared for everything else.”

“I Had To Explain To A 6-Year-Old That There Was A Bomb Squad”

Reichardt says he was surprised he did not feel more freaked out. At the time, he said, the whole situation felt “intertwined with my normal life operations.”

“At one point, I had to ask the police to unblock the road so I could go pick my daughter up from school,” he said. On the way home, his daughter said she really needed to use the bathroom, so he had to explain to a 6-year-old that police officers and a bomb squad would not let them into the house. “Hopefully by the time we get home, they’ll let us back in,” he told her.

He also works remotely from home, and was more concerned about what his new neighbors thought as they walked past a house that, in his words, “looked like a murder scene.” “I was scrambling to catch them and let them know the situation,” he said.

Now it is something he can laugh about. “Hopefully that was the last grenade on the property,” Reichardt said.

What To Do If You Find Something Suspicious On Your Property

Few of us will unearth a grenade, but old houses and yards have been known to hold strange leftovers. The advice from Burrell is the best guide.

Treat anything that looks like a munition as “potentially live and extremely dangerous,” as Burrell put it, even if it is rusty and falling apart.
“Stop handling or moving it immediately, keep others away, and contact the local police department to request an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) assessment,” Burrell said.
Do not try to clean it, open it or take it somewhere yourself.
Keep children and pets well away from the area until officials arrive.
Take photos from a distance if it is safe to do so. Burrell identified Reichardt’s grenade from photographs.

The other lesson is a gentler one for new homeowners: when you buy a house, walk the whole property with a notebook. Find the main water shutoff, the outdoor spigot valve, the electrical panel and the gas shutoff on day one. Reichardt’s search for one humble valve is the reason he found the surprise, and the reason his story ended with a laugh instead of a worse one.

Willow and Hearth