In Sian and Jeffrey Edwards's Pembrokeshire, England back yard, a lawn ornament held an explosive secret. They knew that the phallic object was an old naval shell that a prior owner had spotted on the beach as a youngster more than a century ago. Apparently it had been fired by the Royal Navy during target practice. Found while he was delivering lemonade from his wagon, the boy dragged the 65-pound shell up to the house where it sat ever since. When the Edwards bought the home, they cemented it into the ground and painted it to match the house. Last week though, police noticed the item and called the bomb squad to investigate.
Turns out, it was actually a live shell. Not only that, but "Mrs Edwards said she used to bang it with her trowel to remove earth after gardening," the BBC reports:
It was a sleepless night for Mr and Mrs Edwards, who had been told the whole street might need to be evacuated.
"We didn't sleep a wink all night. It knocked us for six," said Mr Edwards.
"I told the bomb disposal unit 'we're not leaving the house, we're staying here. If it goes up, we're going to go up with it'."
Tests proved it was live, but with only a tiny amount of charge. It was taken to a disused quarry in Walwyn's Castle, covered with five tonnes of sand and detonated.
"It was an old friend," Jeffrey Edwards said. "I'm so sorry that the poor old thing was blown to pieces."
