Seattle, WA
Contractor finds grenade behind bathtub while renovating Seattle home: ‘I rushed out of there’
A contractor remodeling a Seattle home made an explosive discovery when he found a grenade buried behind a bathtub he was removing this week.
Polar Bear Construction owner Vadim Kharkavyy told KIRO 7 News he had just ripped out the tub on the home’s third-floor bathroom on Tuesday when he spotted the grenade between studs in the wall.
“My first thought was to get out of there,” he said.
The Seattle Police Department’s bomb squad responded to the home in the Ballard neighborhood and determined that the bomb was not live.
“I rushed out of there, took a breath, and actually went back in and recorded the situation,” he told the outlet about the shocking find.
“I zoomed in on my phone and took a closer peek, I’m like that’s an actual freaking grenade,” he added.
The contractor posted a video on his company’s TikTok page showing the fist-sized green grenade sitting inside the wall with the pin still attached.
“No f–king way this is so real,” the caption read. The video then cuts to law enforcement officers in thick vests walking into the house.
Khakavvy said that while he’s accustomed to finding things hidden in walls and floors — typically old trash — this was a first.
“Nothing like this, this was big,” he told the outlet. “Nobody knew [it was there].”
The father and husband said he lost three hours of work during the ordeal, but would rather have lost some work time as opposed to a limb or even his life.
“Whether it’s a bomb, whether it’s a grenade, it’s an explosive,” Khakavvy said. “I have kids and a wife at home so I’d rather play it safe than sorry.”
Investigators told him that the grenade may have come from a veteran who brought it home from a war.
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Thanks to Carrie Brown for the westward view of our Saturday night sunset. The high today hit 68 at the airport – eight degrees above normal – but nowhere near the record for this date, which was 89 degrees back in 2016. The forecast suggests two more days of partly sunny, almost-70-degree weather, before the chance of rain returns.
CHICAGO (AP) — The struggling New York Mets placed former Seattle Mariners second baseman/designated hitter Jorge Polanco on the 10-day injured list on Saturday with a right wrist contusion.
Mariners Injury Update: Latest on Robles, Vargas and more
The move was made retroactive to Wednesday, a day after Polanco went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts in a 2-1 loss at the Los Angeles Dodgers. The 32-year-old Polanco is batting .179 (10 for 56) with a homer and two RBIs in his first season with New York, which has lost nine straight.
“When doctors first took a look at him, it looked like he got hit by a pitch when he didn’t,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “In talking to him, it was just a couple of swings that he took that night. … He didn’t think much of it, but just got worse the following day.
“So you just got to let it calm down a little bit and then we’ll go from there. But we don’t have a timetable for how long this is going to last.”
Polanco, who signed a two-year, $40 million contract with the Mets in December, also has been dealing with an ankle issue.
“He was trending in the right direction,” Mendoza said of the ankle injury. “It’s definitely going to help, obviously now with him being shut down. But the biggest thing now is that we’ve got to take care of that wrist.”
Polanco spent the previous two seasons with the Mariners, who acquired him in a February 2024 trade with the Minnesota Twins.
Polanco struggled during his first season with Seattle in 2024, hitting just .213 with 16 homers in 118 games while playing through a knee injury that didn’t become public knowledge until after the season.
But after the Mariners somewhat surprisingly brought him back for a one-year contract in 2025, Polanco rebounded to hit .265 with 26 homers and an .821 OPS in 138 games last season. He then added three homers during Seattle’s playoff run, along with a 15th-inning walkoff single in Game 5 of the American League Division Series that sent the Mariners to their first ALCS in 24 years.
Seattle Sports staff made additions to this post.
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