A COLAC district man has found a unique way to get prompt police assistance after walking into the Colac police station carrying two hand grenades.
Acting Sergeant Andrew Harris said the man in his 60s walked into the police station just after lunch on Tuesday and tried to hand in the grenades as part of the firearms amnesty.
“Senior Constable George Hasiotis looked in the bag, walked back to see the sergeant and said there’s a bloke at the front counter with two grenades. The sergeant explained to the bloke in fairly colourful language that he was a bit of a d***head,” Acting Sergeant Harris said.
“He had two grenades, an Australian grenade and an Italian incendiary device. We sort of closed the door and said ‘oops, what do we do?’.”
Acting Sergeant Harris said the man had found the items among his father’s belongings, who died about 15 years ago.
“He served in World War II and apparently brought them home.
“The bloke was going through his father’s things and thought he probably shouldn’t have them at home, so he brought them to the police station,” he said.
“He thought they were disarmed but was not sure.
“We had no idea whether they were alive or not. We placed them in the secure area away from the police station, contacted the special operations group who contacted the army to come and pick them up.”
Acting Sergeant Harris said the army bomb experts arrived early yesterday morning and confirmed the grenades were inactive.
“Obviously if people find grenades, ordnances of any kind, flares, dynamite or anything else that could go bang, leave them where they are and contact us,” he said.
“We’ll come and assess the situation and contact the necessary authorities.
“It’s not a good idea to pick them up and drive around town with them rolling around in a shopping bag before plonking them on the corner of the counter in the police watchhouse.
“We don’t like the idea of them going bang,” he said.
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