The Amazon Village Mall, an indoor flea market in Orlando, Fla., was closed for almost three hours on Saturday, June 5 after an explosive was found there. A teenager working at the War Zone booth in the mall discovered the live grenade, according to a report on WFTV.com. The shop sells paintball and military surplus gear, and the owner had recently purchased the shop and inventory from a previous owner — so no one knew that the grenade was there, or where it came from.
The boy told the owner, who called the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. Police evacuated the entire flea market, and Orange County Hazardous Device Team safely removed the explosive. “We received a call that an individual who was cleaning out the booth discovered some boxes left behind on a shelf. He took one of the boxes down, a smaller size box,” says Captain Angelo Nieves of the Sheriff’s Office.
“The business owner had some folks with him cleaning out the booth,” says Nieves. “When the young man found it, he notified the booth owner, who took the proper precautions — they put it down on the ground and called us.”
“We responded out there, secured the location, and evacuated the business. We contacted our explosive devices department, who recovered the item,” says Nieves. “They put it in a secure vessel, transported it to the range, and detonated it.”
The flea market was closed from 2:15 p.m. to 5 p.m.