difficult child brought home a granade today...seriously

[tinamarie1]

So, difficult child fixed up this bicycle that he found near the dumpster. Awesome! He loves bike riding. He and his friend went on a long bike ride today on the military base we live next to. He comes home, enters through the back door and runs up the stairs and yells, I am going to watch t.v. in my room. ((( red flag #1))) easy child goes up there a few minutes later to tell him I said to do his chores. She comes back and tells me that he jumped up from his desk and slammed the door in her face. (((red flag #2))) I go upstairs and open his door, and here he sits on his bed holding a GRANADE. A REAL freaking granade, with the pin in it. OMG where did you get that?! He tells me he and his friend decided to go to the shooting range on the military base today. WHAAAATTT??? Then he tells me that the granade was in pieces when they found it and he had been putting it together (did a great job by the way..how scary is that) and taped the bottom part together and wahhh laaaa. Then he shows me a halloween bag they filled UP with ammunition like it was freaking trick or treat candy. Filled to the brim. I tell him to get his ID card and we are going to the base police to turn all of this in. *Wait, first take the tape off the granade so they don't tackle me when I walk into the police station with an explosive*
They took the ammunition and granade and gave him a talk about why he should not be anywhere near the shooting range.
Then I went to his friends house and talked to his parents. They already knew and had talked to their son. They didn't see a problem with him keeping his ammunition, but had a problem with them going to the shooting range.
I think I need a xanax after all that. gahhhhh

 

[Hound dog]

OMG!! Hopefully they'll send someone out to clean up the area.......or do something to keep kids away from the spot. sheesh!!

Heck, after that I'd need a good stiff drink, or 8.

Hugs

 

[gcvmom]

SOMEBODY needs to take a loooong hard look at how easy it was for those kids to get anywhere NEAR the shooting range to get their paws on that stuff!!! Talk about a huge liability accident waiting to happen!

I hope you have a somewhat less exciting day tomorrow!

 

[mrscatinthehat]

Ok deep breaths. I think I would have flipped my wig a time or two over that. hugs


beth

 

[Marguerite]

I'd have called the media, to make it a very PUBLIC lesson about the dangers of having an unfenced (or easily accessed) range full of unexploded ammo. Maybe the armed services would do what they should do, and clean it up?

Reminds me of the story of my brother in law, growing up playing in the streets of post-war Berlin. He was born before WWII and saw a lot of bombing as a kid. In the few years after the war ended, he used to play on the streets and one day found a grenade. He tied a string to the pin and used to play with it by swinging it round over his head. Amazingly, the pin never came out or we would never had heard this story. His mother only heard the story when she came out to visit Australia when her son married my sister. She just shuddered & closed her eyes, very glad she hadn't known it at the time!

Marg

 

[DammitJanet]

Our bases are fairly open from points. Especially if a kid rides in on a bike through the woods or something. Tina..you are in VA beach right? I have been on that base. Its not that easy to just drive on that base from the front gate without getting stopped but it is a public base. Not only that, Tina's family is military so they have access anyway.

There are signs everywhere telling people not to go near the shooting ranges. Not to go near the bombing ranges. etc etc.

I live near...well relatively...the largest Army base on the east coast. My house shakes when they do their bombing exercises. Im not entirely sure exactly where they drop those bombs but I wouldnt want to live right under them. Bet that is some cheap property! I am in the flight path. It is nothing to see 15 C-130's fly over my house at a time. Low!

The military really does all it can to keep the public safe from them. It does. I have seen it myself. I have been on quite a few bases on the east coast.

 

[Star*]

WORD.........

My spelling is so off I thought he brought home a granada.....you know a car......(tick, tick, tick)

Yeah- okay a granade......A WHAT?????????????? WHAT????? OMG. WHAT?

And as far as the OTHER family being okay with the kid KEEPING A BAG FULL OF LIVE AMMUNITION?

OH MY WORD _ are they brain dead?

One hit with a hammer or toss into a camp fire and someone could DIE.

This is serious - first off - your kid could have been arrested for tresspassing - on FEDERAL land.....FEDERAL.......that is HUGE.

Then arrested for theft...

What if......what if that thing had been LIVE.......? IN YOUR HOUSE?

OMG Tina - I really think you need to get someone involved in this and get rid of the granade, ammunition and tell your son and the friend

BIG HUGE NO NO -

ANd what if someone had been shooting with your kids in the woods?

OMG - Hugs

 

[DammitJanet]

Yeah....what if?

I dont know if they train youngins on that base...well most sailors are young, lets face it...but I dont know if they train sailors just out of Great Lakes on that base. Would make sense to me if they did because of how large a base it is but when Jamie did his ammo training at Lejeune, that is when they did the major portion of granades and stuff like that. That is why you see all the big posted signs near bases even before you get on the actual base. They state that you are on Federal land and it is posted for weapons training. Do not enter. Yeah....good idea. LOL.

Now once I got to know Quantico and had my own guide, I saw all these little roads and pathways. He knew when there were trainings being done and we could ride all over the place. It was so cool. But I was there with a badge.

 

[tinamarie1]

Just to clear a few things up...we are a military family and we live in military housing, which is right next to a special ops base. They do a few things there, but the main thing is they train Marines in military and special forces. They also share the base with the Coast Guard that does training there too. AND...they are now building a military prision over there. Its a big base (land wise).
Janet, we live in chesapeake, va...very close to the North Carolina border. We used to be in VA Beach. Its very laid back out here. We are in the country in the middle of nowhere, so there is nothing for the kids to do. So they ride onto the base on their bikes/ scooters, whatever. Theres a little 7 eleven type store over there and they take their allowance and go buy stuff from time to time. They also have a huge family pool, gym, tennis courts, baseball field, etc. So I didn't want yall to think he breeched some kind of security thing by entering over there. He is allowed.
Now the shooting range...it doesn't have a "sign" up saying stay away or anything like that. And even if it did, I think 11 yr old boys would take that as...hmmm lets go see what kind of danger is over there.
I had a long talk with difficult child about this and he got the message when I told him they could take his base privilages away (they have done this to other kids out here) if he disobeys rules, etc. That made him really scared. He loves having the freedom to use the facilities over there. So I don't think he will be doing that again.

 

[susiestar]

I am glad you found the grenade and returned it to base. It soundss like you did the right things.

Be very aware that many bullets still have lead in them. Shooting ranges are one of the most lead-polluted areas that exist. So you need to wash difficult child, his clothing, and anything else the ammo came into contact with. I would throw the bag away.

It takes so very very small an amount of lead to cause permanent brain damage. That alone would scare me. I would not let him play with the other child as long as the other child has a bag full of ammo. It just isn't safe to be around all that lead.

Well, at least your day wasn't boring, was it? Hugs!

 

[Abbey]

All I know is if my kid brought home a grenade, I'd probably go to jail because there would be a good whooping coming down.

Abbey

 

[DammitJanet]

Ahhh...I remember when you moved and still thought you lived over on the Navy base...so sorry!

I didnt think your son did a thing wrong. I know military bases and how they treat the kids. My son was an MP and would have handled what happened the way it seems to have been handled. A stern lecture to a scared little boy who didnt know what he had done. Your son didnt mean to cause any harm. Kids do these things. He was being a boy.

I know where you are now...nice area really. Good fishing! We come up there at least once a year for the crappy fishing. Maybe we can take your boy fishing sometime!