Shells found in home not a danger, bomb squad says By Joanne Huist Smith Staff Writer Sunday, March 15, 2009 DAYTON — Robbin Stichweh remembers seeing the two artillery shells when she was a little girl, the shells her father brought home from his Army infantry days in Germany and Africa. He brought them home as souvenirs, she recalled. Stichweh, 50, said she had forgotten about them until Sunday, March 15, when she found them in the garage while house cleaning. She immediately called a friend who is ex-military, and the friend called 911 sometime after 4:30 p.m. That prompted a visit from the Dayton Bomb Squad, which X-rayed the WWII-era shells in the detached garage of the home in the 4000 block of Corinth Boulevard. Dayton police Lt. Brian Johns said the shells were the type that would typically be filled with shrapnel and someone had removed the point on one of them. "When you find something like this, the key is, don't touch it. Call the police," Johns said. Stichweh recalled that after her father died about 12 years ago, there was an auction of his property. She said she had no idea what happened to the shells in the aftermath of that auction. "I should have looked sooner," she said Sunday afternoon as she and her neighbors waited for the bomb squad to get rid of the ordnance, which Dayton police Sgt. Donald Burden described as approximately 75 millimeters in diameter and less than a foot long each. "I hate to think that I put other people in danger," she said. "They just looked like shells. I was hoping they would go in, look at them, and say they were just duds." Stichweh said she has lived in the house for 25 years, and confessed to being a little shaky at the prospect of having the ordnance on her property. After the bomb squad arrived, police fanned out into the neighborhood to alert residents of the situation. She carried out her five cats, and that seemed to calm her. "I've got my animals out. Nothing else matters." Bomb squad members checked the shells using X-ray and were suiting up at 7 p.m. to remove the ordnance. A Wright-Patterson Air Force Base bomb squad removed the shells. Stichweh said authorities told her about 9 p.m. that the shells were duds, and she was allowed to return to her home a short time later. Shells found in home not a danger, bomb squad says
World War II Shell Probable Cause of Blast One man was killed and another seriously injured after an explosive device detonated in the east German town of Niemegk on Monday. The police say it was probably a World War II shell but it is still unclear if the men tampered with the device. The most catastrophic war of the 20th century may have claimed another victim, after the detonation of what appears to have been a World War II shell in a German town on Monday night. more at Deadly Explosion: World War II Shell Probable Cause of Blast - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International
Grenade found at Augusta golf course News 12 at 6 o'clock, March 18, 2009 AUGUSTA, Ga. --- It was an "explosive" day at the Augusta Municipal Golf Course. A golfer found a hand grenade that possibly dates back to World War I. The course was shut down for about two hours while the Richmond County Bomb Squad cleared the area. The area, which sits behind Daniel Field, was old army base used for munitions training. A bomb squad detail from Richmond County and GBI detonated the unexploded hand grenade. The explosive is believed to be an MK-2 "pineapple" grenade; popular during World War I and II. For more: Click here.
I've got a book that is about the recovery of US remains from the Bulge, and in it they talk some about battlefield scroungers. One guy took home what he thought was a German shell, but turned out to be an American 155mm. He was trying to take the fuse out, when he started heating up the back end of it (because he had disarmed many German shells that way) and he struck it with a hammer. The explosion seperated his garage from his house, blew windows out all down his block, and threw his car into his neighbors living room.