Rearmed Grenade Explodes In Boy's Hand - Orlando News Story - WKMG Orlando
LAKELAND, Fla. -- A 9-year-old boy was critically injured Thursday afternoon when a rearmed World War II grenade exploded in his hand at a Central Florida house, deputies said.
The incident happened at about 5:30 p.m. at a house located on Sunnydale Lane in Lakeland.
"This 9-year-old child, doing what 9-year-old children do, had this grenade in his hand, and he had a small lighter, and he touched the lighter to this grenade and it exploded," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said.
The child was airlifted to Tampa General Hospital in critical condition.
The boy's mother, Ann Marie Weise, purchased at least one inert grenade from a Lakeland auction about two years ago, deputies said.
Around July 4, the boy and his father, Edward George Weise II, 44, removed black powder from firecrackers and placed the powder into the grenade, deputies said. A wick had been installed in the grenade, but it did not detonate, deputies said.
The grenade was then placed into a large flower pot on the top shelf of an entertainment center in the family's living room, and the boy was spotted with it some time on Thursday, deputies said.
The boy's mother told deputies that she saw her son with a metal lighter and told him to put it back. Seconds later, the grenade detonated, deputies said.
"The explosion was significant enough that when the explosion went off in the kitchen, that shrapnel went through the kitchen wall into other rooms of the house," Judd said.
The mother and the boy were the only family members home at the time of the explosion. She was transported to a hospital as a precautionary measure.
During a search of the home after the explosion, detectives located marijuana and drug paraphernalia in the master bedroom that Ann Marie Weise shares with her boyfriend, 46-year-old Larry Busby, the Sheriff's Office said.
Edward George Weise II and the boy's 20-year-old sister, Stephanie Weise, also live in the home.
An investigation is ongoing and charges are pending in the case.