KINGSPORT, Tenn. (WJHL) – In a police report filed Friday, Kingsport police officers say they were informed that several explosives were located inside a safe belonging to a dead man earlier this month.
According to the report, Kingsport Police Explosive Ordinance Unit officers were called to a home to assist the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) on April 4 after a 73-year-old woman opened the safe of her recently deceased husband to find seven military surplus grenades that had been reactivated. According to the SCSO, the residence was in the Bloomingdale community.
When officers arrived at the scene, the Kingsport report says the devices appeared to be “filled with black powder and functional fuses.” All seven were removed from the scene by the Kingsport Police Department (KPD), and the report says they will be destroyed at a later date after storage. In an image provided to News Channel 11, several fuses with intact pins can be seen screwed into the top of the grenades’ main bodies.
No investigation has been launched regarding the devices, according to SCSO public information officer Captain Andy Seabolt.
