Reported explosive device turns out to be firecracker grenade

The potential explosive device that led to the evacuation of at least one office building Monday turned out to be a firework grenade.

Dothan Police Officer Thomas Davis said police responded to the intersection of South Oates Street and Main Street after a Dothan City street crew found what initially appeared to be a grenade next to the curb of the street. Davis said the device was found around 9:40 a.m. in front of the Cochran, Cherry, Givens and Smith law firm on South Oates Street.

“They were doing a job, and happen to stumble across what appeared to a hand grenade,” Davis said. “They found out it was firework military grenade. Somebody probably got it from a fireworks place.”

Lt. Keith Gray, the department’s bomb squad commander, said it appeared to be a “grenade left over from the Fourth of July celebration.”

Yellow police caution tape blocked traffic for nearly an hour within at least a two block area of the Houston County Courthouse and evacuated the Cochran, Cherry, Givens and Smith law office building. The Dothan Police Department, including the bomb squad, and the Houston County Sheriff’s Office were on the scene.

Gray said a robot paid for with Department of Homeland Security money through a county grant picked up the grenade. The robot carried the grenade to a large metal tank attached to the back of a pickup truck.

When asked by a Dothan Eagle reporter if the grenade was real, Dothan Police Lt. Keith Gray said, “Usually grenades don’t have paper around the top. But it’s a device until our technicians say it’s not.“

The grenade was taken to the Dothan City firing range and examined by bomb squad technicians. Houston County Sheriff’s Lt. Jeff Carlisle said authorities did not set off the fire cracker. He said they kept it for evidence in an open ongoing investigation.

This is the third time the Department of Homeland Security bomb squad robot has been called out in the last week.

The Dothan Police Bomb Squad removed and detonated a pipe bomb from the parking lot behind Dothan High School late Thursday night. Gray previously said the pipe bomb had already been defused.

The bomb squad was also called Thursday to the Dale County Courthouse in Ozark after authorities found possible toxic material in a cooler. According to a previous Eagle report, the material was reportedly seized from an alleged meth lab in Ariton.