ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. (WFLA) – An investigation is underway after deputies say a “training grenade” was found outside a historic hotel in St. Pete Beach.
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office says deputies were called to the Don Cesar Hotel on Gulf Boulevard just after 11:30 a.m. Friday.
They were called to investigate what deputies said appeared to be a grenade found in the bushes on the east side of the hotel property.
Tampa’s bomb squad responded to the scene and determined the object was a “training grenade.” Deputies say it poses no threat to the public.
“The way it was built, it never had the capacity to be explosive,” Sgt. Spencer Gross with the sheriff’s office explained. “So it’s the same size, it’s the same weight as a normal grenade of its kind. But it has never had a capacity to be an explosive.”
Casablanca Avenue was shut down from the Pinellas Bayway to West Maritana Drive during the investigation, but has since reopened. A sheriff’s office spokesman says there were no evacuations.
