Someone took the gift of giving to bizarre heights in Winston-Salem, NC this past week. They nearly gave a bunch of Goodwill employees a heart attack in the process.

According to Winston-Salem Police, this past Thursday they responded to a call from the local Goodwill where an employee said they discovered a grenade in a collection box. They arrived at the location shortly after 9 AM, by which time the device was out of the box and on a desk.

For some reason, it took employees a week to get around to informing law enforcement of the discovery. Maybe they were under the impression it was a paper weight? Whatever the case, it finally occurred to someone that a well meaning do-gooder might have dropped off a dangerous weapon, making it a matter for the authorities to sort out.

Once the police had determined that the grenade was real, members of the Winston-Salem Police Department’s Hazardous Device Unit were brought in. They secured the grenade and took it to the department’s hazardous device disposal area. There they determined that it was indeed live and was very dangerous.

Soon after the grenade was detonated and rendered safe.

“@WXII: Live grenade found at W-S Goodwill store http://t.co/t4FQS1qPrN” sorry but even this won't stop me from shopping at GW

— Teri Golding Meeks (@tgmeeks) January 24, 2014

Live grenade found at a local Goodwill store? I would love to know the story of how it was accidentally donated! http://t.co/ONBrnp5uyp

— Karen Hoch (@HochKaren) January 24, 2014

The employees at the Goodwill have no idea who brought the item in, and the Winston-Salem Police Department is asking that anyone with any information contact the department at (336) 773-7700.

There’s no word as to whether or not this situation is related to a similar event that happened at a nearby Goodwill back in 2010. At the Peters Creek Parkway Goodwill Store, employees were unaware that there was a grenade in the store until a customer tried to purchase it. The Bomb Squad was brought in to examine the grenade, which was determined to be inert and non-explosive.

To the well intentioned grenade owner, there are many things that it would be great to donate to a Goodwill. A grenade? Not one of them.

Image via Wikimedia Commons