READ MORE: Wyoming Vets Say Riverton Grenades For Training — Still Nothing To Play Around With
RIVERTON — When 15-year-old Roxton Lookingbill didn’t catch any fish Wednesday evening on the Wind River, he started walking back toward his grandmother’s house along a little dirt road that passes by a tow yard — and something caught his eye.
It was a small toolbox, but surprisingly heavy. It bore signs of water wear and rust. But, Lookingbill told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday phone interview that he hadn’t seen it there on his way to the river, though he’d taken the same route.
It seemed as though the box, which he thought was a socket set or other tools, had just fallen from someone’s truck.
Lookingbill opened the box and didn’t find a set of sockets or tools — he saw four hand grenades.
He didn’t think they were real. But when he got back to his grandma’s house on East Monroe, Lookingbill kept the grenades in the yard outside and texted his mother just in case.
“He messaged me and told me he found something that couldn’t be in the house,” recalled Lookingbill’s mother Ashley Harding, in her own Thursday interview. “I thought he found, like, an animal because it’s spring.”
Maybe her son had brought home a bird, cat or snake, Harding reasoned. Or a gun, she said with a sardonic laugh, adding “awesome. Put it down, don’t touch it.”
‘Those Are Bombs’
But when Harding saw the box, she recognized them as something potentially dangerous.
“Those are bombs,” she said, adding without irony that she was “completely blown away” at the sight of them.
Harding looked over the four grenades — which Riverton police report were live — for any sign or symbol that they were toys. She and Lookingbill ran a Google images search on them, which didn’t turn up any resemblance to toys.
The Google search actually suggested the devices were World War II-era hand grenades, Lookingbill told Cowboy State Daily.
The family left the grenades on the opposite side of the fence from their dogs and called law enforcement.
Harding was worried that the devices would be toys, and that she would have caused a fuss for nothing. But that’s not what happened.
Bomb Squad
The Riverton Police Department responded, then reached out to the local emergency management coordinator, who reached out to the Wyoming National Guard. The Guard determined it was a U.S. Department of Homeland Security issue, and the Natrona County bomb squad responded.
It took a while for the bomb squad to arrive from Casper. The bombs were reported around 7 p.m. and the squad arrived between 9 and 10 p.m., Harding recalled.
In the meantime, it seemed like “everyone” from police officers to firefighters converged on the area, she said. Some neighbors peeked out at the response, and Harding said the family had to reassure the neighbors that the response wasn’t in regard to Lookingbill’s grandmother’s health.
“We let the neighbors know grandma was fine — nope, her grandson just brought her home grenades,” said Harding.
She said she’s grateful to the police officers for being brave and remaining on scene. And for having enough faith to respond to what could easily have been a late April Fool’s prank.
“They were very professional and handled it as well as could be, for the unexpected,” said Harding.
No injuries were reported, RPD said in a Thursday morning statement. The police officers cordoned off a safe area. Bomb squad technicians responded to the scene and removed the grenades.
The Natrona County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment, relaying Cowboy State Daily’s request to RPD.
“Police are still investigating how the devices were left near the river,” says RPD’s statement.
The Vets
Reflecting on the sight of the hand grenades, some military veterans in Wyoming said they could be “live” in a diminished sense — but they look like training grenades.
A grenade in the Riverton Police Department’s photograph from the scene bears an aquamarine-blue colored handle, or “spoon,” which multiple former military members from Wyoming told Cowboy State Daily signifies a training device.
But the discovery is still cause for caution, and it’s a good thing the teen’s mother called police, some added.
“Training is always blue,” Carlos Skinner of Riverton told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday phone interview.
A deadly grenade poised to blast fragments everywhere would be olive drab green, he added.
Skinner was an airborne ranger for about 15 years in the Second Ranger Battalion out of Fort Lewis, Washington, he said.
Training grenades may still explode, but with a minor “pop,” like a firecracker he said.
Still, Though
It’s still good Harding called police, former U.S. Army armorer Joey Correnti told Cowboy State Daily.
Correnti said he used to train people on explosives, including hand grenades.
The grenades found in Riverton look like the antiquated “pineapple” type, he said. Correnti estimated they’re from at least before the 1970s; and Skinner associated them with World War II.
“I was in the Army 21 years I still wouldn’t pick those up,” said Correnti. “You come across anything (like this) and the best thing is to just remember where it is, mark it, have someone keep an eye on it.”
He described the process of “cordoning” the area, then calling the police to dispose of the devices.
“The only thing you know is that you don’t know what that is, and it’s definitely old,” he said.
Correnti said he’s glad the Riverton situation ended as calmly as it did. But looking at the rusted box, he added, “the kid might want to get a tetanus shot.”
Got One Myself
John Livingston, who lives in California and has property in Wyoming, said he was in the U.S. Army from 1987 to 1996, and has used blue-handled grenades in training. He also bought one at a surplus store when he was 18 and has owned it since.
His is empty: the bottom is cut off, said Livingston.
“Blue (color-coding) across all the services indicates training device,” said Livingston.
Some training devices may have a diminished explosion, however, and “you don’t want to be holding it when it goes off” though it’s not fully explosive or fatal, he added.
That’s why the Riverton Police Department’s statement that the devices were “live” may not be inaccurate, though the grenades are likely training devices, he noted.
RPD Capt. Wes Romero told Cowboy State Daily that the Natrona County personnel who responded Wednesday told officers to treat the grenades as live.
Update: this story has been consolidated with a follow-up story authored Thursday afternoon.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
