New Lenox man found with live grenades in car in Lemont
By BRIAN STANLEY Sun-Times Media September 28, 2012 4:04PM
Updated: November 1, 2012 6:38AM
Lemont police said a New Lenox man found passed out in his car in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant had live grenades with him.
Chief Kevin Shaughnessy said officers were called around 9:30 p.m. Sept. 16 after employees of McDonalds, 1152 State St., reported an unconscious man in the parking lot.
When they arrived they found an incoherent George Crocker, 39, hanging out of his Mercedes with 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. and found a second grenade on the passenger seat and removed both of them, Shaughnessy said.
Tests showed both grenades were “live” and contained “a military-grade high explosive,” he said.
After the grenades were removed, police found drugs 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 drug possession.
He is being held in the Cook County Jail in lieu of $300,000 bail.
Shaughnessy said Crocker did not tell investigators why he had the grenades.
