Residents in a Duluth neighborhood had a scary wakeup call Saturday morning.
Police evacuated several people from their homes off Thayer Trace due to a possible hand grenade being found in a suspect’s abandoned car after a police chase, according to a Duluth police incident report obtained by AJC.com.
However, that grenade turned out to be a replica that had been modified to look like a legitimate explosive device, the report said.
About 2:30 a.m., an officer spotted a black Acura TL with a license tag that belonged to a Toyota Camry, the report said. The Acura sped off on North Berkeley Lake Road, leading to a brief chase.
The high-speed chase ended with the car’s driver, 33-year-old Johnny Pich, abandoning the vehicle on Thayer Trace, allowing it to roll into a parked car in a driveway, the report said. The road is off Summit Ridge Parkway and near Peachtree Industrial Boulevard.
Pich, who was able to escape from officers, is accused of carjacking the Acura on May 21 in Gwinnett County before switching the license plates.
Credit: Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office
Credit: Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office
When an officer went back to search the car, he spotted the fake grenade on the floorboard. Police promptly called in the fire department and bomb squad to set up a perimeter and investigate.
An X-ray of the grenade determined it was a fake, but officers said it “had been altered to cap off the bottom of it to make it appear to be a real grenade,” the report said. The device was seized by authorities, and residents were allowed back into their homes.
The report lists Pich’s offenses as felony theft, possessing a hoax device, fleeing police, hit-and-run, failure to notify owner upon striking unattended vehicle, expired license, reckless driving and obstruction. The full list of charges Pich will face is unclear.
Pich was arrested in February on methamphetamine possession, obstruction and drug-related object possession charges, Gwinnett jail records show. He was out of jail on a $6,100 bond; that case is pending.
He spent nearly four months in prison in 2007 after being convicted of methamphetamine possession and obstruction from a 2005 incident in Gwinnett, Georgia Department of Corrections records show.
Credit: Georgia Department of Corrections
Credit: Georgia Department of Corrections
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact Duluth police at 770-476-4151.
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