- Older woman had been using the grenade to hammer nails and crack nuts for two decades
- Mistake only came to light when workmen spotted it
- Grenade has since been safely disposed of
An elderly Chinese woman had a shock recently when it turned out that what she thought was a hammer she had been using for 20 years was actually a grenade.
Used as hammer
The woman, Qin, who is 90 years old, had been using the grenade to crack nuts and hammer nails into walls ever since she found the device while working on her farm. She assumed it was a hammer due to the shape of it, took it home and had used it ever since for everyday tasks, she explained in a video that has since gone viral.
It only emerged that Qin’s ‘hammer’ was a potentially lethal device in June when workers who had come in to demolish her old home saw it and recognised what it was.
The workers alerted the local Huangbao police service, who in turn reported it to local public security authorities. They then sent a bomb disposal crew to Qin’s old home, who confiscated the device. The grenade has since been safely destroyed.
In the video, the grenade can be seen with many signs of wear – the wooden handle had become smooth from its years of use and the head had pits in it from repeated hammering. Even a section of the fuse had become exposed.
Police warning
Since then, local police officers have held an education session for people in Qin’s village, Xiangyang in Hubei province in central China, warning them not to pick up any suspicious objects they find and report them to the police. After all, another person may not be so lucky as Qin was for all those years.
