Woman finds live grenade while cleaning out deceased father's home in Knowlton, Que.

A woman cleaning out her deceased father's home in the Quebec town of Knowlton made a bombshell discovery on Friday – she found a live grenade.

Kedrin Simms Brachman said she was going through the Eastern Townships home when she found it in a toolbox.

"We went into his tool room, which was always, like, nobody ever went into his tool room. That was a sacred place," she said. I was looking for something, and then I opened up the toolbox, and there was a grenade."

Simms Brachman said she wasn't immediately sure what the best course of action was and called her stepsister in from another room.

"I'm like, what do we do with it? Do we pick it up? Do we drive it to the police? You know, how do we take care of it?" she said. "I don't want to touch this thing. It's a grenade."

They didn't touch it – instead, they called the provincial police (Sûreté du Québec) non-emergency line and reported their finding. They were immediately transferred to the emergency line.

"They said, 'Okay, are you guys not touching it?' I said, 'No, we're not touching it. We don't want anything to do with it. Please come get it,'" she recalled.

An SQ officer arrived at the home, and after sending pictures to his supervisors, told Simms Brachman it appeared to be an antique grenade. He would need to call in the Canadian Armed Forces.

As they waited for the army to arrive, the SQ officer told her, "Don't go down and touch it."

"And I said no plans on touching it. No plan," she said. "I wanted it out of the house."

• LISTEN on CJAD 800 Radio: This former Knowlton resident foudn a live grenade in her deceased father's tool box

Soon after, two members of the army arrived with an artillery case, said Simms Brachman.

She said army officers quickly realized the grenade was indeed live, telling her, "We normally get calls for these antique things and they aren't live."

But this one was.

"It had a detonator and everything in it. It was intact, so they secured it. They loaded it in their truck, and off we went."

Two members of the Canadian Armed Forces secured the grenade (Kedrin Simms Brachman)

The Canadian Armed Forces point out if you see something that looks like it may be an unexploded explosive ordnance (UXO), follow these steps:

1. Don't touch it.
2. Note the location and leave the area.
3. Call 911 or local police.

The woman, who now lives in Virginia, said she recalled seeing the grenade decades ago in her dad's home, but never thought he'd kept it. She said she has no idea where it originated from.

"I recall years ago that I believe that came from my grandfather's house. So after my grandfather passed away, and I recall Dad brought it. I remember – this was like over 30 years ago – I said, 'You need to get rid of that,'" she said. "And we all thought he had."

Now that any danger has been averted, Simms Brachman had to chuckle about the incident, saying her father, who died in October, was a character, and this was just another story to remember him by.

Frank Simms died in October. The grenade was found in his home. (Kedrin Simms Brachman)"He had a lot of stories and he always liked to entertain, so this was not necessarily completely out of the realm… but finding a grenade was definitely a weird one," she said.

"When everything was all clear, I went back around and told the neighbours. They were all now laughing and they were like, 'Well, Frank wants to make sure we're on our toes.' That's it in a nutshell. Frank wanted to make sure we remembered him."

Simms Brachman said anyone who finds a grenade should take it seriously, and not take any risks.

"If you find a grenade or any old ammunition… you need to call the police," she said. "They followed their protocol and were wonderful and I'm sure this was one of their one of their strangest stories for a while, too."