Resident Finds Grenade In Backyard Of Bethesda Home

BETHESDA, MD — A Bethesda resident doing yard work on Wednesday afternoon unearthed what looked like a grenade.

Fire and explosive investigator from Montgomery County Fire and Rescue and Montgomery County Police patrol officers were called to the scene in the 5300 block of Worthington Dr. in Bethesda

They investigated the grenade and determined the device to be non-explosive, Pete Piringer, spokesman for Montgomery County Fire and Rescue, said in a tweet Wednesday.

Shells fired from a World War I-era chemical weapons testing ground by American University have been found in Spring Valley in Northwest D.C. There is no indication at this time that the grenade found on Worthington Dr. has any association with those U.S. Army activities from 100 years ago, Robert Dyer reported Thursday.

In 1993, 25 houses in the Spring Valley neighborhood were evacuated after a backhoe operator digging a trench had uncovered a suspicious object. The D.C. fire department was called.

Munitions crews from the Army Technical Escort Unit at Aberdeen Proving Grounds determined they were unexploded mortar and artillery shells from World War I. That discovery began a decades-long investigation and cleanup of the area.