KISKI TOWNSHIP (KDKA) – A police department and fire department in Armstrong County were evacuated Wednesday after authorities say a man found a grenade in a garage and took it to the Kiski Township Police Station.

Police deposited the grenade in a burn barrel after the man brought it to the police department. He says he found it in a garage in Vandergrift.

Police were startled and so were neighbors.

“It’s unnerving,” said Patty Posney, a neighbor. “We live across from the police department and you think you’re safe.”

It’s not every day that both a police station and a fire station are both evacuated, but it happened Wednesday afternoon in Kiski. The grenade was resting right between the two buildings.

“We had to evacuate two households, the police station itself, the township building, and also, the actual fire department,” said Chief Rich Frain, of the Kiski Township Fire Department.

Eventually, the Allegheny County Bomb Squad came to Kiski where they quickly identified it as a World War II, vintage, Japanese-type, 97 grenade. It’s filled with acid.

The bomb squad carefully hauled it away to a safe location to blow it up.

Now, police are investigating to find out how the grenade ended up in the garage.

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