A young boy in the UK, searching for bones in his garden in East Devon, made a rather ‘explosive’ discovery, prompting him to call the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Service. According to a report from Metro, 9-year-old George Peniston-Bird from Yarcombe was searching the backyard when he discovered a small explosive device and ran into the house to tell his mother about it.
His mother was skeptical at first, but she soon dialed 911. The operator quickly transferred her to 999, and police arrived at their home about 20 minutes later.
Mrs. Peniston-Bird told DevonLive“I was absolutely sparko [half asleep] after a very late night he came running into the bedroom and said, ‘You have to wake up, I found a grenade! And I said “Oh yeah absolutely I’m sure you did that’s fantastic why don’t you go over there and take a picture of it” like all moms do and thought “That’s just getting kinda bullshit He ran back into the house with his iPad, shoved it in my face and I was so half asleep and said, “Oh… that could be a grenade.”
The officers said it appeared to be a grenade and called in explosive ordnance disposal. The soldiers X-rayed the object and found that the explosive was still active. The police speak of an “unexploded grenade from World War II”.
It was then taken to a nearby field and detonated safely, sending mud over a hedge into another area. Meanwhile, the boy’s mother said the discovery and the visit from the police and explosives disposal squad were very exciting for George.
Rural East Devon Police also later shared the photos of the grenade and details of the incident on their Facebook page, writing: “It was an explosive afternoon for our colleagues from Rural East Devon Response.”
See the message here:
“This may sound alarming, but it is surprisingly common in Devon and Cornwall, where a number of appliances either wash up on the shore or are in the clearing of a loved one’s property after being kept as a memento. Just last week, our officers from the Seaton Neighborhood Policing Team in Colyton provided a similar report, detonating the grenade safely in a field behind the property,” they added.
Although rare, unexploded bombs from WWI and WWII are still occasionally discovered.