Magnet fishing is a wonderful thing. In case you're not aware of what it is, it's basically where people hurl big, strong magnets into waterways to find treasure. It's like the safer cousin of diving to find loot.
And it's well known for being a pretty lucrative business. People often find lost valuables like jewelry and even phones!
But one Rhode Island fisherman found something he wasn't exactly angling to find. As reported by People, 35-year-old Gerard Perreault was relaxing by magnet fishing at the pier at Rocky Point State Park when he made a pretty wild discovery.
Rather than bottle caps or even the odd treasure, he pulled out a strange mass from the water. It was blackened and rusted but had these very distinct sections to it.
He immediately realized exactly what it was—a World War II-era Mk 2 hand grenade. Its distinct shell earned it the nickname of a "pineapple grenade."
"I was pretty surprised when I pulled that up," he recalled. Of course, having a live grenade in your possession would scare anyone, so he immediately got in contact with the Warwick Police Department.
They got the Rhode Island Bomb Squad involved, while they evacuated the pier in order to figure out the safety of the device. "I felt a little bad [about the evacuation]," he recalled.
Luckily, it ended up being inert. Technicians ended up needing to perform several tests on the grenade, including an X-ray, to figure that out.
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Finding Old Bombs Is More Common Than You Think, and Not Just via Magnet Fishing
You'd expect the odd strange weapon in the water to be caught up through magnet fishing. After all, people lose things all the time.
But what you wouldn't expect is a bomb being used as a conversation piece. Well, that's exactly what happened in England last month.
As reported by the BBC, a woman from Norwich was found to have been harboring a live explosive in her backyard. She thought it was inert—and had been handing it to guests ever since her son brought it home in the 70s.
"I ain't worried about it all these years, I wasn't worried about it yesterday," she said defiantly. A bomb squad ended up needing to blow it up in a controlled explosion.
