WILTON MANORS, FLA. (WSVN) - A dangerous discovery was made inside of a Wilton Manors bar as a man pulled out a surprising weapon from his pocket.
Working as a bartender in South Florida has its fair share of interesting stories, but for Joe Shakespeare, a customer pulling out a grenade from his pocket was a first.
“Yeah, that was a little different, a little scary,” said Shakespeare.
This happened Tuesday night, at the Corner Pub in Wilton Manors.
It was a usual night with a heavy crowd, and Shakespeare was busy behind the bar when the man casually placed the grenade on the bar counter.
“And then said, ‘Don’t be scared,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, no, I’m not scared,'” said Shakespeare, “even though I was petrified.”
He kept his cool and let his bosses know to call the police. Officers advised them to clear the bar out.
“We started working together and getting people out of the bar slowly,” said Shakespeare.
“The bartender handed me a note that said, the guy behind me has a grenade,” said a witness. “I grabbed my stuff and I left.”
Another customer, Darryl, took the role upon himself to distract the suspicious man, talking to him while everyone else headed towards the door.
“He was agitated at somebody in the bar, for some reason, and anything I could do to distract that mindset,” said Darryl.
Once everyone was out of the bar, Darryl pointed the man to the door, and once they crossed the threshold, he took him down.
“First thing I did was grab his left hand, get that away from the grenade. Then I did a leg sweep, pushing him down with my full body weight,” said Darryl.
Police officers were waiting outside and would take it from there.
The gravity of what had occurred at the bar hit Shakespeare hours later.
“When I got home I was like, God that could have been really bad,” he said.
The grenade turned out to not be live and couldn’t have detonated.
Officers are now helping the man seek mental health treatment.
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