Maine State Police responded to separate incidents Saturday afternoon in which a mortar round was found at a home in Bowdoinham and a grenade was found at a home in Winslow.
Both devices appeared to be old and to have been left behind at some point in separate, unrelated circumstances, according to Shannon Moss, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Public Safety. But they each were considered potentially dangerous and were removed by the state police bomb squad, she said.
The incident in Bowdoinham was reported to the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Department around 2:30 p.m. Saturday after a person found the apparent mortar round on their property on White Road, Moss said. Bomb squad technicians went to investigate and identified it as an 81MM M374 mortar round, with x-ray analyses indicating the item was potentially hazardous.
About an hour later, someone cleaning out a home on Main Street in Winslow found a hand grenade and called the local police and fire departments, Moss said. Bomb squad technicians who went to investigate identified the grenade as a live standard MK2 hand grenade from the WWII or Korean War era.
Both items were safely removed and taken to secure locations to be either disarmed or destroyed, according to Moss.