By Paul Duggan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 2, 2008

A dummy hand grenade that someone apparently tossed in the trash in Rock Creek Park led authorities to close part of 16th Street NW for a few hours yesterday before military explosives experts determined that it was harmless.

The grenade, which was labeled "inert" and might have been a novelty item, was found by a maintenance worker in a bag near a trash bin in the park shortly before 8 a.m., authorities said. U.S. Park Police closed 16th Street between Montague Street and Colorado Avenue and summoned a D.C. police explosives disposal unit.

Assistant D.C. Police Chief Patrick Murphy, the department's head of homeland defense, said the bomb disposal unit examined the grenade, then summoned explosives technicians from the U.S. Department of Defense. Those technicians disassembled the grenade in the park and determined that it was harmless, Murphy said.

Real grenades that have been rendered inert are easily obtainable by people who sometimes use them as knickknacks or paperweights.

"A lot of people will find them when they're cleaning out the garage and don't know what to do with them, so they'll just throw them in the trash," Murphy said.

Sgt. Robert Lachance, a Park Police spokesman, said the grenade was found near the Carter Barron Amphitheater, off 16th Street. The street was reopened by 11:30 a.m.

The scare was the second involving a grenade in the District in recent weeks. On Sept. 5, U.S. Capitol Police said they found a grenade, two loaded firearms and other dangerous items in a vehicle near the Library of Congress.

The grenade in that case was described by authorities at the time as "not inert." Murphy said yesterday that the grenade had once been inert, but that someone had opened it and put a potentially explosive substance inside. A suspect in that incident was charged with weapons and other offenses.

Staff writer Howard Schneider contributed to this report.