Updated

Pennsylvania State police removed a World War I grenade from an auction, fearing the device could still detonate, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported.

Bill Evans, the owner of Bill Evans Auction Service of Murrysville, said a trooper took the hand grenade from Saturday morning's auction at the Export Fire Hall.

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The grenade – a “potato masher” style used by German soldiers during World War I and II – had attracted about 100 people to the sale before it was removed.

“I don't know if it was live or not,” Evans told the Tribune-Review.

Evans told the paper he used plastic ties to secure what seemed to be the grenade’s activating trigger. Before the auction, it had been secured with a rubber band, Evans said.

State Trooper Nick Iera took the grenade to his police cruiser about 10:15 a.m., photographed it and contacted bomb disposal authorities, Evans said.

Evans refused to reveal the owner of the grenade.

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