Unusual Use for UXO? You Be the Judge!

Atherstone, Warwickshire, United Kingdom Over the years we have heard of many bizarre uses for old munition items - a door stop, mantle ornaments, and many more, but this one may be the strangest yet. A British woman reportedly used an old ordnance item she dug up as a vase for over 30 years.

The item, identified as a 75mm shrapnel projectile, was kept filled by the woman with flowers. Thirty years passed before she discovered the dangers inherent in "vase" which she dug up with friends when she was just 15-years-old.

On a recent sick day from work, she became suspicious of her trusted vase while watching a documentary on UXO that had been dropped on Coventry by German zeppelins during WWI. She called the non-emergency police hotline to report the device. She described it as 12X3 inches with a conical tip which can be unscrewed.

An officer reported to her house within an hour. The munition was removed to a local police barracks where the Ministry of Defense examined it and determined it had some live components to it. The item was returned to the woman after the energetics were removed with assurances that it had been rendered safe.