Tryon Police Chief Jeff Arrowood met State Bureau of Investigation officers at the Melrose Inn Thursday, Nov. 17 after owner Marilyn Doheny called to say a potential grenade had been found on the back portion of the property, located on Melrose Avenue in Tryon.

“We don’t have many things like this called in,” Arrowood said. “But we don’t want to take it lightly. Our job was mainly to rope the property off so no one could get to the grenade and potentially be harmed.”

David Salmeri, who works as a handyman for Doheny, said he was cutting vines and clearing brush when he came across the grenade in the ground.

He said at first he thought it was just a piece off an old item of furniture.

“So I kicked the thing to get it out of the ground,” Salmeri said. “Once it came loose I immediately realized what it was – it was just so rusted, but you could see the clasp and pin.”

Salmeri quickly found Doheny, who called the Tryon Police Department.

“We thought maybe it was some sort of antique from the Civil War or World War II. It was very heavy,” Doheny said. “We were just surprised because someone has been on the property with a metal detector and didn’t find it.”

Salmeri said the overgrowth on the back edge of the property likely prevented anyone from coming near it.

“Before the landscaping crew came in, it was just so overgrown back there – there’s no telling how long that thing has been there,” Salmeri said.

Investigators did not take the grenade lightly. They carefully removed the item from the property and sealed it into an explosives box to transport it to a lab where it could be destroyed.