Scott County Historical Society staff made a surprising find last week while working in their collection storage area.

Sitting on a shelf, surrounded by a number of small items, was a small round metal object. Upon closer look, its tag identified the object as a grenade.

A little spooked, curator Courtney Wyant hurried to the collection database and used the tag's identification number to pull up the object information record. The record stated it was a World War I grenade manufactured around 1917 to 1919. The body of such a grenade would contain explosives, which are ignited by a wick (also attached to the grenade). Nothing in the record said whether this grenade still contained explosives or if it had ever been inspected.

With this information (or lack of information), Scott County Executive Director Kathleen Klehr gently placed the grenade in a box, removed it from the rest of the collection, and then called the Shakopee police.

"I was pretty nervous and wanted professionals to inspect the nearly 90-year-old grenade to make sure it was safe to handle," Klehr said in a press release about the incident.

An officer arrived and closely inspected the grenade — screwing off the top neck to look into its body. When he began to unscrew the neck, Klehr and Wyant jumped back and hid behind walls, afraid of what might happen, said the news release

However, the officer knew what he was doing — the grenade was empty, and a rolled up cloth wick was found inserted in its hollow neck.

Wyant has updated the grenade's database record to note the inspection and the grenade's safety.