Saturday 24 March 2012

The Tale of A Bomb Disposal


I have a story to tell, a completely real and hard to believe kind of story. A story involving a hand grenade that was found in the Nature Reserve at the bottom of my garden.

**All photos are real, and were taken throughout the incident**

My younger Brother Christopher loves venturing out of the gate that leads into the mass array of forest at the bottom of our garden. When I was younger, you would often find me charging around down there. Running around, building tree houses and playing hide 'n' seek. I have some very fond memories of the place, but this story is about my Brother and Sister, and their wild adventure down there.

One sunny Sunday back in 2008, I arrived back from my job as a Receptionist in a Hotel. Instantly upon arriving home, my Mother ran out and frantically declared 'Chris has found a hand grenade!' She quickly ran back off into the house, muttering something about calling up the local History Museum, to see if they could describe what a 'real' grenade looks like.

Not only had my darling Brother found this hand grenade in the Nature Reserve at the back of the house. In a moment of crazy-ness and maybe not fully aware of the dangers. He had picked it up and brought it the short walk home with him. He showed it proudly to my Dad, who instantly took a step back and told him in no un-certain words...to 'put that thing down! Now!'

The Museum gave a very accurate description of the grenade, and it would seem that we currently had one in our back garden. My Mother was looking more worried by the second. When she put the phone down she quickly ran outside to the other end of the garden, where the grenade had been carefully placed. The museum had said to look for a pin, and if the pin was missing to stay well away....As it could go off at any given moment.

The next point of call was obviously to the Police. They were very surprised by the nature of the call and immediately sent around a riot van with Two officers. This was just the start of the events to un-fold on a quiet sunny Sunday afternoon.

The Two officer's took one look at the grenade and then at each other, and were soon beckoning us in out of the garden. They said it looked to be a hand grenade from World War II. They were soon asking my younger Brother and Sister, where they had exactly found it. They were immensely concerned that the pin was missing and that it could be very un-stable. It was at that moment they told us to inform all of our immediate neighbours and to tell them not to venture out of their houses until the matter had been resolved.

Of course our neighbours were pretty shocked to say the least. It is not everyday you have a World War II hand grenade, situated at the bottom of your garden.

The officer's then called in a second opinion. It was then that the local un-marked Police car appeared on our drive, with two more Police officer's inside. We were now getting quite a menagerie of vehicles together on our drive.

They were lead into the back garden where they had a good look at the grenade. They were very impressed with my younger Brother for finding it, and were utterly amazed he had picked it up. They could not fathom how he had brought it back home with him, without the pin. It should have gone off, but for some reason it hadn't.

The officer's gathered in the safety of the front garden, and confirmed that it was time to call the Bomb Disposal Unit in. The Tea and Coffee was handed out in force and it was then that we all began to speculate, where had this grenade suddenly appeared from? It has to be said that the Police officer's, seemed rather excited at such a discovery.

After a good gossip about the grenade, the Two officer's in the un-marked Police car departed, and we all sat awaiting the arrival of the next figures of authority.

My mind was racing, and it was all sinking now, just how serious this was and how the outcome could have been very severe. It was also completely surreal and was not the every day occurrence, especially for the average Sunday afternoon.

The last thing I had expected upon arriving home, was to be confronted with a hand grenade and then having the Police....and the Army gracing us with their presence.

A big white van pulled up after about 20 minutes. The Police officer's filled them in on their findings and the Two Disposal officer's who were kitted out in the full works, made their way through to take away the troublesome hand grenade.

The Bomb Disposal Unit took one look at the grenade, and then instantly picked it up, threw it into the air, only to catch it again with both hands. There was no loud boom, no smoke or screaming, in-fact there were no repercussions at all.

We all looked on in utter shock. What on earth was he doing? Was he crazy?

No neither of them were crazy. This hand grenade was just a very good replica. It had been constructed to make the average Joe think it was real. There was no danger in it what so ever. It was at this moment that my younger Sister Alice piped up 'Can we keep it?' Of course the answer to that question was a big fat 'No'. I guess it had already fooled 4 Police officer's and wasted enough official time. It had even brought two Army officials to our house, on this glorious, quiet Sunday.

We never did find out where this very realistic hand grenade came from, but it was enough to fool 4 Police men on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

To this day we joke with Chris about the day he disrupted every ones Sunday afternoon. The day he decided to pick up a potentially dangerous hand grenade and bring it home with him, all so he could take to 'Show and Tell' at school the next day.

I did tell you all that I live in the mad house, didn't I?

Do you have any unusual occurrences you would like to share? Can you top the random highs of my story?



8 comments:

  1. haha what a great story to tell! glad it was only a replica and no damage was done

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    1. It was a very strange day. I stumbled across the photos last night and thought I would share :-)

      Thanks lovely xx

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  2. WOW! What a fabby story! I thought stuff like this only happened to my family! Glad your house is/was as mad as mine!! Great Story!x

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    1. Hey lovely. Ooo do you have some stories like this? I would love to have a read! This is truly the mad house! hehe xx

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  3. Wow what a day, glad all turned out well

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    1. It really was a bit crazy! No-one ever believes me when I tell this story!

      Thanks lovely xx

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  4. Oh my goodness that is totally crazy! A bit of an excitement for you! xx

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    1. Yup very crazy! I guess it is to be expected in the mad house :-)) xx

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