Amazon driver jumps from moving van after grenade thrown inside, Oklahoma police say
An Amazon driver was out delivering packages in Oklahoma City when he heard something hit the floor toward the back of the vehicle, police said.
The man told police he looked back thinking he might have dropped something — and he saw “what looked to be a grenade” rolling toward him at about 3:30 p.m. Central time Monday, May 23.
“At this point his first thought was to get out of the van,” according to a police report. The driver said he “just opened the driver door and jumped out without even thinking about it.”
He hit the ground, suffering minor injuries to his knees, as the van continued to drive off, police said.
The delivery van came to a stop when it crashed into a curb, mailbox and parked vehicle, according to the report. The driver says “his adrenaline was running,” so he quickly decided to run back toward the van, pick up the grenade and toss it out.
After throwing the grenade, the man says he ran far away.
Police responding to the incident found the device and confirmed it was a grenade. People were evacuated from homes in the area, the report states, and the bomb squad took the device away.
Authorities later learned the grenade was inert, a police spokesperson told McClatchy News. Inert grenades, also called dummies, are often used in training because they look and feel like real ones.
The Amazon van’s surveillance video shows a man on the sidewalk “holding something in his right hand” before something is seen falling into the van and rolling, police said. The van’s side sliding door was open at the time.
The camera also captured the driver as he jumped out and “miraculously slips out of the seat belt so that he would not get dragged by the van.”
Police did not find or identify the suspect, who was seen wearing a red shirt, shorts and no shoes.
This story was originally published May 24, 2022 at 12:20 PM with the headline "Amazon driver jumps from moving van after grenade thrown inside, Oklahoma police say."