A man walks into a South Florida bar with a grenade. No, this isn’t the start of a joke
A scary scene played out Tuesday night at a bar in Wilton Manors.
Witnesses say at a little after 9 p.m., a patron at The Corner Bar pulled out a grenade and placed it on the bar before putting it back in his pocket.
Fellow customer Darryl Darling, who served in the Marine Corps, decided to distract the man.
“I bought him a drink,” he told the Miami Herald on Wednesday. “It was all part of the plan.”
The two men began talking as the owner called cops and got people out of the establishment as quickly as possible.
“He was oblivious,” said Darling, who was able to subdue the individual, and hold him on the ground until cops from the Wilton Manors Police Department arrived.
Cops searched the man, ultimately finding that the grenade was hollowed out — and considered a dummy.
“It looked very real,” said Darling.
The “emotionally disturbed” man with the toy grenade was taken to a mental health facility, as per a police report, and his identity was not released.
The man told officers he was “destroyed by the recent deaths of close friends.”
This story was originally published August 17, 2022 at 5:53 PM.
