RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Chatting my brother last week, he and his wife had spent their lives keeping an eye on her cousin who had mental health issues, eg an obsession with collecting things, hats being one of them. He recently passed away, so they had to clear out his flat. There was a room stacked to the ceiling with hats of every description, including WW2 helmets, not realising the value of them he sold the whole lot to a dealer, enough to fill a pick up truck.

They looked under the bed...

Shells? No, not sea shells, artillery shells..big ones. They pulled them out and decided to ring the police.

Hi, we are clearing out a house and have found some shells, what should we do?
Well we aren't really interested in them, you could try a gun club or dealer.
Errr, no, these aren't shotgun shells, they are bigger than that.
How big?
These are artillery shells.
What?
Big ones.
Oh errr..we'll send someone round.

A constable turns up and takes a look. OMG!

He rings the station, and a couple of others turn up on a blue light. OMG!

They ring their boss. OMG!

Boss rings the army, tells them what they have here. OMG!
Boss puts the emergency services on red alert. Plans are put in place to evacuate everyone within 2 miles, close off all roads as far as the motorway, and hospitals are put on standby.

Bomb disposal team is despatched from Salisbury on a blue light to Bristol. They take a look, some are duds, just filled with resin to give them weight, some are empty, but a couple are still live rounds. They drove up in a bomb disposal truck, so decided to take the live ones back to Salisbury to dispose of them.

One look under a bed, and mayhem ensues...the moral of the story is, never look under someone's bed!!

Time was the first constable on scene would have had a look and then taken them away. Post war many of the Sheffield police were ex forces so if any bombs were found they'd send someone who knew what they were to have a look. Incendiaries would be put in a bucket & chucked off the nearest bridge. They had great fun dredging the rivers in the 70's.......

Under the bed isn't too bad though. Apparently the navy officers mess somewhere had two shells sat next to the fireplace. The bomb disposal lead got dragged to an event and then got told off for looking at & moving the shells. Live 18" naval rounds shouldn't be kept by a fire...... He went back the next day with the team: one of whom taught me to dive.

HAHAHA, wow that is funny.
Proper class!

Wow, that was quite the story.