Miami-Dade Police on Thursday turned over a live hand grenade found by a woman raking her backyard to Homestead Air Reserve Base, which will investigate where it came from, a U.S. Army Garrison-Miami spokesman said.
"They are going to be looking into it because the FBI is interested in knowing where it came from," spokesman Arthur McQueen told NBC Miami.
He said the base will try to determine where the 40mm grenade originally belonged.
A bomb squad was called in and a southwest Miami-Dade street was evacuated Wednesday after an elderly woman doing yard work discovered the grenade at about 3:30 p.m.
The incident happened on the 9800 block of Southwest 85th Street when the woman was raking her backyard and came across what appeared to be a live grenade, Miami-Dade Police spokesman Roy Rutland said.
The bomb squad was called in and police the entire block was evacuated as a precaution, Rutland said.
A bomb squad member removed the grenade and it was carefully placed into a bomb disposal unit.
Rutland said police believed it may have been some sort of accident.
"We are talking to her now to find out exactly why this item may have been in her backyard," Rutland said. "Foul play is not suspected."
The woman said her husband, who recently died, had retired from the military but said he wouldn't have left an item like the grenade in the yard.
McQueen said Miami-Dade County historically was very supportive of the military, especially during World War II.
"There was a big camp. You had people training on Miami Beach and so forth. So it’s not unusual to find ordinance," he said, indicating that the grenade found Wednesday is "a more current piece of ordinance."
The investigation could proceed quickly or "it could take a long time," McQueen added.
