Today In Florida: Fisherman Finds WWII Hand Grenade, Takes It To Taco Bell

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By  Gwen Ihnat

There's hardly a story that comes out of Florida anymore where we don't have loads of questions. Case in point: A Florida man and his girlfriend found a World-War-II-era grenade while magnet fishing in a river in Ocklawaha on Saturday. What would you do if you found such an potentially explosive device? Call 911, we expect, and ask for the bomb squad, which would be exciting, like something out of a movie. But in 87 million years, would you take that grenade and drive straight to Taco Bell?

Nevertheless, that's just what this couple did, putting "the grenade in a five-gallon bucket with other scrap," then placing the bucket in the trunk of their 2017 Camry and driving to the restaurant, says the Ocala StarBanner. A few news stories have the man "tossing" the grenade in the trunk which, my heart. The man's girlfriend eventually called 911, and subsequently causing the Taco Bell in nearby Ocala to be evacuated. The Ocala Police Department confirmed that the device was an authentic WWII hand grenade, and removed and disposed of the explosive device.

So, those questions. Well, there's one main question: Why? Maybe the pair had a friend at the Taco Bell who was an explosives expert. Maybe they just didn't want to be alone right then. Maybe they were super-hungry for a chalupa. Still, we just can't stress enough that the safest thing to do would have been to call emergency services, close to the river site of the original find. What if there are more grenades there?

This is our second Ocala story in as many months: Last month a man tried to buy hot dog with weed at an Ocala Circle K. Maybe Ocala is just the home of strange mashups.

Oh, Florida. Some day we may crack all of your myriad mysteries, but we doubt that day will be any time soon.

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