Workers at an Arkansas Goodwill were forced to evacuate the store after opening a donated box and finding two grenades mixed in with household items.
The discovery happened at the Goodwill location on Caraway Road in Jonesboro, where employees were sorting through incoming donations when the suspicious items appeared.
Staff immediately contacted police, triggering a response from local officers who cleared the building and secured the area.
Jonesboro Police Chief Rick Elliott confirmed officers were dispatched after a call about “a suspicious item” inside the store.
“Employees were going through donation boxes and found what appeared to be a military-style ordinance,” Elliott stated.
Authorities later determined the grenades had been unknowingly donated by an elderly woman cleaning out her late husband’s belongings.
Elliott explained the woman had gone through “her deceased husband’s belongings that he brought back from the war, put them all in a box, and brought them up here,” adding, “She didn’t know what was what.”
Firefighters and EMS crews staged nearby as a precaution while police awaited specialized support.
An Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit arrived from the Little Rock area to handle the grenades.
Technicians secured the devices and later detonated them to eliminate any risk.
Officials said it was unclear whether the grenades were live before they were destroyed.
Police indicated the ordnance likely dated back to the World War II era.
Elliott noted that veterans from earlier conflicts sometimes brought home items that later resurfaced during estate cleanouts.
“This is something we’ve seen many times before,” Elliott said.
He urged families sorting through military-related belongings to avoid touching unfamiliar items.
“A word of caution is, when you’re going through your loved one’s belongings, and you see things that are military in nature, some kind of grenade or ordinance round, whatever it could be, just leave it as is,” Elliott advised.
He added that people should contact police and allow trained personnel to handle the situation.
The Jonesboro incident joins a growing list of similar cases involving donated explosives discovered at Goodwill locations.
In December, a live hand grenade was found inside a donation bin at a Goodwill store in Palatka, Florida.
That discovery prompted authorities to immediately evacuate the building.
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad was called in to secure the device.
The grenade was removed from the property and remotely detonated in a secure location.
Officials said the explosive appeared to have been donated unintentionally.
A Goodwill spokesperson confirmed an employee found the grenade in a bin near the donation door.
Local police later issued a public warning urging donors to carefully inspect items before dropping them off.
“We want to remind the community to thoroughly check all items before donating, ensuring that hazardous items, such as explosives, firearms, or ammunition, are not accidentally included,” the Palatka Police Department wrote.
“If you ever locate something that appears to be a hand grenade or other explosive device, do not touch or handle it,” the department added.
Police instructed anyone encountering such items to evacuate immediately and call law enforcement.
Another Florida Goodwill faced a similar emergency in November at a store in Fort Pierce.
Officers responded to reports of a suspicious object at the Goodwill in the Sabal Palm Plaza shopping area.
Upon arrival, police learned an active grenade had been mixed in with recent donations.
The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Disposal Unit was dispatched to the scene.
Bomb technicians confirmed the grenade was real before safely removing it.
Authorities said they did not believe the Fort Pierce incident was intentional.
In September, a Goodwill donation site in California triggered a shelter-in-place order after workers spotted what looked like a hand grenade.
The item was discovered inside a parking lot donation bin.
Because officers could not immediately confirm whether the device was real, the parking lot was evacuated.
Bomb squad members decided to detonate the object on site rather than risk transporting it.
“After it was rendered safe, they were able to take a look at it and it was determined to be a fake,” said Salinas Police Department representative Zach Dunagan.
Dunagan explained the decision to detonate was based on safety concerns.
“We would much rather it be rendered safe somewhere else than being transported, potentially putting other people’s lives at risk,” he said.
Police said they were unable to identify who donated the fake grenade.
In March, another Goodwill evacuation unfolded in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania.
An employee sorting through a large donation box noticed what appeared to be oversized ammunition.
“One of our employees at this location was going through a gaylord when she noticed what appeared to look like really large bullets,” an assistant manager recounted.
“Then, she pulled up what looked to be a hand grenade,” the manager added.
Local police consulted with a bomb squad expert and determined the grenade was not live.
Yet another incident occurred in January 2024 at a True North Goodwill in Ashland, Wisconsin.
An employee there discovered a WWII-era grenade inside a donated box.
Police were alerted, and the store was evacuated as a safety measure.
According to a news release, the grenade was moved outside between two dumpsters before bomb technicians arrived.
The Japanese-made grenade was later detonated by the Marathon County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad.
Authorities reported no other weapons were found. The Wisconsin store reopened the following day.
Goodwill officials reiterated that weapons of any kind are not accepted as donations.
The organization stated that donated military items pose serious risks to employees, customers, and first responders.
Law enforcement agencies continue to urge the public to treat unfamiliar military objects as potentially dangerous and to contact authorities rather than attempting to handle them.
