SECRET SERVICE FINDS GRENADE DURING SEARCH OF MIAMI APARTMENT

Residents Evacuated; Grenade Turns Out To Be Dud

UPDATED: 10:42 am EDT July 14, 2006

 

MIAMI -- Residents of a Miami apartment complex were forced to evacuate Thursday night after officials found a hand grenade in a man's apartment.

 

The Secret Service was searching an apartment on Southwest 12th Street and Third Avenue when they found the grenade.

 

"I saw the cops on the second floor and they told me we had to evacuate," resident Nico Theodoru said.

 

The Secret Service called in the Miami Police Department's bomb squad for assistance. The hand grenade turned out to be a dud.

 

"Once the bomb squad retrieved this hand grenade, or what appears to be a hand grenade, it's actually a dud. It had a hole drilled at the bottom," said Willie Moreno of the Miami Police Department.

 

Residents said police were inside apartment 207, which belongs to Alvah Lavar Fortham.

Residents also told NBC 6 they saw police searching Fortham's pickup truck in the building garage.

 

The truck, which has a Florida license plate and a foreign license plate, is decorated with American flag stickers and a Department of Homeland Security decal.

 

"He's like an average guy. Not suspicious," said neighbor Massimo Lovario. "I saw the plate, the Muslim plate or whatever it is (on his truck). I never think about anything like this."

 

Investigators would not say why they were in Fortham's apartment or if he is in custody.

 

The Secret Service would not comment on the case. The agency is in charge of protecting the president, but NBC 6's Tom Llamas reported they also investigate counterfeiting and bank fraud.