Michigan man found WWI grenade while magnet fishing in Grand Rapids

Magnet fishing — it's a thing, and exactly what it sounds like. Last year, we interviewed a pair of magnet fishing enthusiasts in Detroit who found two guns at the bottom of Detroit's canals, one perhaps nearly 100 years old.

A Grand Rapids-area magnet fisherman has them beat, though. On Tuesday, Joseph Alexander fished out what police later confirmed was a World War I German "Granatenwerfer" grenade from the bottom of Grand River near the Sixth Street Bridge.

"I thought it looked like a grenade, but not one I've seen before," he told WOOD-TV. "We brought it back home, took some pictures of it, posted it online, and we started getting comments that 'it’s a grenade, call the police.' So that's what we did."

Even though the grenade was likely no longer dangerous, officers called in a bomb squad to detonate it safely with C-4 explosives.

Police told Alexander they believe someone might have brought it back to the U.S. and threw it in the river when they realized it was illegal to possess.

We have to wonder what else is down there.



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