Estate Sale Cigarette Lighter Purchase Turns Into Live Hand Grenade

by copythis

Novelty and unusual lighters come in many forms -- as do stupid people. A Florida woman proves that smoking can in fact be hazardous to your health, particularly if you can't tell the difference between a novelty cigarette lighter and a live hand grenade.

Cigarette lighters can take many shapes, even the form of ammunition -- like a shiny "bullet." A "grenade lighter" may not be an impossible form for a novelty lighter, but as the old adage goes: "if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck.”

The St. Johns County Sheriff's bomb squad got to dispose of some ammo in Flagler County, Florida, after an estate sale purchase.

A woman in the Hammock Beach area told deputies that she'd bought what she believed to be a novelty "grenade" cigarette lighter at an estate sale. The unique lighter turned out to be less unique when viewed from a different perspective: after rethinking the situation, the women decided that the "cigarette lighter" may actually be ammunition.

The call -- though delayed -- proved to be a good one. The "cigarette lighter" turned out to be no novelty, though the firing pin had been pulled out and replaced at some point. The grenade was set off in an isolated area by the bomb squad.

Anyone got a light?