LI CRIME BRIEFS

SAYVILLE/'Corroded' grenade found

A "corroded" but live grenade was found Friday in the basement of the Sayville Modern Diner by a contractor fixing a gas leak, the restaurant owner said.

Police said it's not clear how old the grenade is and how long it's been there. Diner owner Dimitrios Sioutopoulos said the grenade was found in a crawl space that had rarely been touched since his great uncle opened the business in 1933.

Friday night, Sioutopoulos said he was too unnerved over the double trouble to open for business, even though authorities said the gas leak repairs had passed inspection.

"I've been very lucky, thank God," Sioutopoulos said from the diner. "I'm a little shaken up."

Emergency services police disposed of the grenade after getting the call about 3:25 p.m. The case has been referred to the arson squad.

Workers from a plumbing and heating company had been fixing a gas leak since Thursday, when Sioutopoulos arrived at 6 a.m. to open for breakfast and smelled the "awful" gas fumes.

When they went into a crawl space Friday to repair a gas line, the diner owner said, they came across the grenade.

"In the crawl space was . . . what appeared to look like a hand grenade," Sioutopoulos said. "The diner's been here forever and nobody ever actually had to get into certain areas of the building that needed repairs, so you didn't know."

"It was an actual hand grenade . . . It could have been World War II, it could have been anything. It was corroded. It could have been potentially dangerous," he said.

The diner owner said he was a "pretty big dude" who did not fit into the crawl space, but the "little guy" from Alan S. Gross Plumbing and Heating in Sayville snapped a photo, which was then shown to police.

"I'm just thankful that nothing happened to anybody," the restaurateur said.

Alan Gross, the plumbing company owner, said his two workers also were shaken up. The grenade was found next to a box of coupons from 1946, many of them for coffee, said Gross, who collects memorabilia.

"These last two days have been nothing but very interesting for me," Sioutopoulos said Friday night. "I'm probably going to open up for breakfast tomorrow morning."

-- ELLEN YAN

NEW CASSEL/Cops: 3 struck with car

A Huntington Station woman faces charges of assault and reckless endangerment after running down three other women with her car at a New Cassel hall early Friday, Nassau County police said.

Deputy Insp. Kenneth Lack said Shannon N. Chambers, 35, of 7 Tower St., had gotten into an argument with women at the American Legion Post 1861, at 887 Prospect Ave., that turned violent.

After being punched in the eye, she left the hall vowing to be back. Lack said Chambers went to her car, parked around the corner on Hooper Street.

A short time later, about 2:27 a.m., she drove east half a block in the westbound lane of Prospect, heading for about 20 people standing on the sidewalk in front of the hall, police said. She hit three women -- aged 25, 39 and 45 -- and a utility pole, police said. She backed away from the pole and hit the 39-year-old woman a second time, Lack said.

None of the three, he said, were involved in the initial argument.

Chambers was arrested by Third Precinct officers on routine patrol, as she was trying to get away, police said.

Chambers and the three women suffered minor injuries, police said. All four went to a hospital, and Chambers' car was impounded.

Lack said police did not know what the fight was about. Chambers was not charged with DUI.

She has a previous conviction in 2009 for criminal mischief. Lack said she broke the windows of a car.

Chambers was scheduled to be arraigned Friday in First District Court in Hempstead.

-- KERY MURAKAMI and GARY DYMSK