Darwin Award Stuff. Never Trust a Metal Detectorist

Shell shock

A quiet street in Weeton, North Yorkshire was evacuated by the army's bomb squad after workmen uncovered an unexploded World War Two missile - and posed for selfies with it (Will Kilner, 'Workmen uncovered WW2 missile - then posed for selfies and 'messed about with it' before being warned it was live' Telegraph and Argus 1st March 2020).

Landscape gardener Stephen Cochrane, 36, was forced to down tools and evacuate the area after being warned by the police that the bomb he had been "messing about with" was live. Police swooped on the street and evacuated neighbours as the army's bomb squad removed the shell and made the area safe. Stephen said his labourer had come across the missile as he was digging footings to replace a fence in a customer's garden., on Thursday. He said: "We'd gone about two foot down and he's hit it with shovel a couples of times. "He thought it was a big rock at first, then we brushed the dirt away around it and discovered it was a bomb." He sought the advice of his brother-in-law, a metal detecting enthusiast, who said the missile was a dud. So the workers took it in turn to pose for selfies with the bomb and Stephen even started to jet-wash the missile so he could take a piece of real-life history for his young son. But after stopping for lunch, he thought to get a second opinion on the situation and rang the police, who asked him to email through a photo of the bomb. And he was left shell-shocked when they called him back and told him to evacuate the site as soon as possible as bomb disposal experts were on their way to the scene. Stephen [admitted] "I was quite silly not to get an expert opinion on it straight away, I just took my brother-in-law's word for it as he is pretty clued up on this sort of thing.

Not, apparently, including what the Code of Responsible Metal Detecting (etc.) says about the discovery of munitions... duh.