WWII Grenades In Woodbury: ‘He Wanted To Empty Them Out Himself’

Among a cache of World War II items found at a Woodbury home last month were .

“There wasn’t anything else too interesting,” said Dustin Rhein, whose family found the grenades in the basement of his grandfather’s former home at the 2700 block of Robinwood Way. “Nothing of shock value.”

      World War II Grenades Found At Woodbury Home

While he didn’t want his grandfather’s name mentioned, Rhein said he is an 86-year-old Navy veteran who served in China and Japan during World War II.

The St. Paul bomb squad was called and took possession of the grenades.

“He didn’t want to give them up,” Rhein said. “He grabbed a screwdriver off the shelf and said he wanted to empty them out himself. He said he had done it a hundred times.”

The family was moving him to an assisted living home in Woodbury and they were cleaning out his basement on Feb. 11 when they came across the Japanese fragment grenades, Rhein said.

One was a TNT grenade and the other was a 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (picric acid) grenade, according to a Woodbury police report. It also said the grenades were manufactured from 1937-1945.

The family asked him where he got the grenades.

“He just found them in the field,” Rhein said.