Dorchester man unknowingly cycled home with grenade in his bag
He says he was 'blown away' by the discovery.
Last updated 6th Jan 2022
A Dorchester magnet fisher says he was blown away to discover he'd cycled home with a grenade in his bag.
Police and a bomb squad were called to Holbaek Way when Stephen Hill identified one of the items he brought home as a grenade.
Stephen had been magnet fishing with a friend on Monday at Lubbecke Way.
Stephen said:
"We were just chucking everything in a bag that we'd got because we clean everything off of the side of the river, so it's not left there.
"I've never found anything explosive in Dorchester before so I didn't really think I would.
"Get home, going through my bits and I find I've got a grenade which I've cycled home with on my back.
"Both of our reactions, excuse the pun, were we were pretty blown away by it."
Stephen finds what he describes as lots of 'rusty rocks' because of the strength of the magnet he uses. He assumed the offending item was another one of those.
Thankfully Stephen's family were out of the house when he made the discovery and called the police.
The grenade was identified as a WWI fragmentation grenade that police said could have been volatile.
He said:
"The police turned up, had a look at it, they weren't sure if it was too rusted to explode or because it was rusted like it was, it was likely to explode.
"The bomb squad turned up, came into my back garden, had a look at it, put it in a box... and took it back to dispose of it at their base."
A Dorset Police spokesperson said:
"Dorset Police received a report at 3.26pm on Monday 3 January 2022 that a grenade had been found by a member of the public who was fishing in the river near to Lubbecke Way in Dorchester.
"The device was subsequently taken to an address in Holbaek Close in the town. The EOD team attended, along with officers from Dorset Police, and removed the WW1 grenade from the area."