Live explosive at Warner Robins home was unnoticed for days, couple says

A Warner Robins couple says they had no idea a live hand grenade was sitting in their garage for about a week.

Roosevelt Imani Gadson, a Publix employee and heavy equipment operator, picked up a used tool box off the ground while doing yard work on April 19, at a house off of State Route 96, he told The Telegraph. He glanced inside, initially found rusty wrenches, and closed it up.

The 37-year-old figured it didn’t belong to anyone because it sat next to a trash can, so he kept it and brought it to his home at 109 Sun Valley Drive in Warner Robins, according to his wife, 36-year-old Patty Gadson.

“Even if you opened it up, you wasn’t able to see that there was a grenade in there, unless you like dug under the stuff,” Patty Gadson said.

Roosevelt Gadson kept the plastic Rubbermaid tool box in his garage until sometime last week, when he reopened it to work on a concrete path behind their house Thursday.

That’s when they found a rusty, palm-sized, pineapple-shaped, black hand grenade inside with the letters “RFX” engraved on it. It was hidden beneath the wrenches.

“I called my wife over … and she had looked it up on the internet, but she thought it was a practice grenade,” Roosevelt Gadson said.

A quick Google search linked to warfare weapon sale websites and question-and-answer forums that discussed similar accounts of a bomb with the RFX mold. They each described the explosive as a practice fragmentation grenade possibly used in training during World War II.

The word “practice” felt reassuring at first, the couple said.

Roosevelt Gadson said he called a friend who also assumed it was safe.

“One of my military friends was joking around about it too, so I wasn’t sure whether to take it to his house,” he said. “He was saying to take the clip out, but I wasn’t going to take no clip out of that thing.”

Then a retired United States Air Force colonel and friend of Roosevelt Imani Gadson’s identified what it was.

“He told me it’s very dangerous (and) to get in touch with law enforcement,” Roosevelt Gadson said. “He’s a hero.”

Roosevelt Gadson said he was worried it could overheat and detonate, so he called law enforcement.

“The fact that it was in my garage for about five to seven days, you know that that’s what I was concerned about,” he said.

He called police Friday afternoon, a day after they discovered the grenade. He was working a shift at Publix when police asked him to return to his house for questioning.

Law enforcement swarmed Sun Valley Drive, which was unusual for the quiet neighborhood, he said.

“It was a lot of police officers on my road, maybe 10 different law enforcement, a bomb truck and a fire truck,” he said. “A lot of neighbors out trying to figure out what’s going on.”

Tracking leads on the explosive

The Warner Robins Police Department didn’t respond to requests for comment about the situation, but the couple said investigators were trying to use fingerprints and initials engraved on items inside the tool box to track down its original owner.

An incident report obtained by The Telegraph from police was brief and did not disclose new details.

“On 04/24/2025 at about (1:52 p.m.), Officer Taylor and I, Officer Farmer were dispatched to 109 Sun Valley (Drive) in regards to found property,” the report said.

“(The case) is still active, so only the initial report is releasable at this time,” Lorena Valdivia, a records technician for WRPD, said in an email.

Patty Gadson said an officer told her Monday that it would be difficult to identify fingerprints on the plastic Rubbermaid tool box.

“He came by and looked at it,” Patty Gadson said. “I told him, ‘You’re more than welcome to take the tools or take the tool box if it helps y’all with anything.’”

A rusty red wrench inside of the tool box had small initials “RF” scraped on.

“The tools with initials, they’re probably going to take note of that,” Roosevelt Gadson said.

The Warner Robins Police Department described the box as a “used truck tool box” in a media release on Friday.

Police and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit responded to the scene and confirmed it was a live explosive, the news release said. Officers notified neighbors of what happened and encouraged them to leave their homes until the area was safe, according to Patty Gadson.

Law enforcement deemed the area safe within two hours and took the grenade away.

“Whoever it belonged to, I guess they put ammunition in there,” Patty Gadson said.

Police urged anyone with information related to the incident to call Detective Matthew Chittenden at 478-302-5380, or Macon Regional Crimestoppers at 1-877-68CRIME.

This story was originally published May 1, 2025 at 6:00 AM.