Live grenades found in car in Lemont
By BRIAN STANLEY bstanley@stmedianetwork.com September 28, 2012 2:18PM
Updated: November 1, 2012 6:36AM
LEMONT — Police reportedly found a New Lenox man passed out with live grenades in his car earlier this month.
Chief Kevin Shaughnessy said officers were called about 9:30 p.m. Sept. 16 after employees of McDonald’s, 1152 State St., reported an unconscious man in the parking lot.
“They arrived to find an incoherent George Crocker, 39, half in and half out of his Mercedes. As an officer approached, he saw a grenade on top of the center console,” Shaughnessy said.
Police pulled Crocker from the vehicle and evacuated the restaurant. The Cook County Bomb Squad arrived shortly after 10 p.m.
“They found a second grenade on the (passenger) seat next to the console and removed both of them,” Shaughnessy said.
The bomb squad tests showed both grenades were “live” and contained “a military-grade high explosive.”
“Many times suspected explosives are only look-alikes. This was the real thing,” Shaughnessy said. The FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were notified.
After the grenades were removed, police reportedly found narcotics in the car. After being treated at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox, Crocker was arrested on charges of unlawful use of a weapon, unauthorized possession of an explosive and narcotics possession.
He is being held in the Cook County Jail on a $300,000 bond. Shaughnessy said Crocker did not tell investigators why he had the grenades.
