UXO Coconut Opener Kills One Injures Another

Kalpitiya, Sri Lanka A man was killed and another injured when the two reportedly used an unexploded mortar round to open a king coconut. The two found the mortar round at a nearby military training range.

Man Attempts to Smuggle Munitions Into Army Base

Fayetteville, North Carolina A contractor that worked on Fort Bragg was stopped at the front gate as part of a routine security check as he was attempting to access the base. The security personnel decided to search the man's car where they found three military munitions in the trunk. The civilian contractor was detained by the military police while the FBI and the 722nd EOD Company responded to investigate the find. EOD determined that the munitions were inert WWII era 3.5 inch bazooka rounds.

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Family Finds UXO While Dad Gets Out the Wire Brush

Berowra Heights, Australia A family who recently purchased an older five bedroom home were in the process of renovated their new home when they came across an old munition item in the garage under a dusty workbench. Initially, the family considered reporting the find to police but reportedly did not do so right away due to concerns that the report may cause an evacuation/interruption of a nearby elementary school. So the family kept the munition in the garage for ten days until the school was on break before calling police. During that time, the family reportedly posed for several photos with the munition and the father even tried to clean the rust off of the munitions with a wire brush.

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Camper Picks Up Military Flare

Fair Haven, New York A camper walking along the shore of Lake Ontario found an 18 inch long 3 inch round metal cylinder which appeared to have washed ashore. Curious as to what the item was, the man picked it up to read the warning label on the item which stated, "To arm rotate cover to armed position. To disarm rotate cover to safe position.'' The warning however was apparently not enough of an incentive for the man to call and report the find. Instead, the man carried the item back to his RV about a mile away.

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Man Transports Munition To a Nearby Government Facility

White City, Oregon a man found an old mortar round on his property and rather than calling the police to report the find, he decided to transport the munition to a nearby Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) Rehabilitation Center. According to a public affairs specialist from the facility, the man assumed because the facility was a Government facility that they would be able to deal with the munition.

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Inert Grenade Made Into a Firework Injuries Boy

Lakeland, Florida a 9 year-old boy remains in critical condition at Tampa General Hospital as a result of an explosion that occurred in his home. The explosion reportedly occurred when the boy used a lighter on an improvised firework designed from a WWII era MK II hand grenade he was holding. The improvised firework was reportedly constructed by the boy's father. It all started when the boy's mother purchased an inert WWII era grenade from an auction house about two years ago. Allegedly the boy and his father decided that the grenade would make a great July 4th firework so they took the powder out of dozens of firecrackers and poured it into the empty grenade body and inserted a wick into it.

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Local Fisherman Carries UXO To Police Station

Cotabato City, Philippines A local 35-year old fisherman found a UXO item along the shoreline of the Rio Grande de Mindanao as he was docking his boat along the river bank during low tide. The UXO was half buried in the sand and sediment. Concerned that someone may be harmed by the UXO, the man took it upon himself to uncover the UXO and personally hand delivery it to the police station.

The police called the 6th Infantry Division Bomb Disposal Unit in for technical support in dealing with the UXO. Bomb disposal technicians identified the UXO as a live WWII era munition (specific type not reported). The technicians safely detonated the UXO to dispose of the explosive safety hazard in a controlled detonation operation.

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Da Bomb Outside of Da Bar

Kodiak, Alaska for nearly 20 years an old WWII aerial bomb hung outside of Big Jim's Little Bar as the owner of the bar assumed that it was loaded with inert concrete. Bar patrons referred to the wall decoration as "Da Bomb" as someone over the years painted those words alongside body of the bomb. When the bar changed owners, a local resident ended up with the bomb. The resident decided that we would donate the munition (shown in the image below) to the Kodiak Military History Museum so he called the museum to pick up the bomb.

Kodiak

The museum curator traveled to the man's house to inspect the bomb. The curator noticed that the bomb cavity contained a fill material that did not exactly resemble concrete. Doing some research, the curator identified the bomb as a WWII era AN Mk I Mod 3 1,263 pound aerial bomb. Concerned that the filler was potentially energetic material, the curator called the EOD unit based out of Fort Richardson for further analysis.

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Three Killed in Illegal UXO Scraping Operation

Yandina, Solomon Islands three people were killed including a child and two adults when a UXO item exploded during an illegal munitions dismantling effort. Two other children nearby were critically injured in the blast and had to be taken to the local hospital. The two adults were reportedly attempting to extract the explosives out of WWII era UXO when one of them exploded. Local police responding to the incident reported that the two adults were boiling the UXO in hot water to melt the explosives out so that it could then be used for fishing. The use of explosive in fishing known as "dynamite fishing" is an illegal practice where explosives are used to kill and stun fish in an area which are then scoped up with a net.

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Man Drops Munitions Off To Museum

Fort William, United Kingdom An 82-year old man dropped off a donation to West Highland Museum, a pair of WWII incendiary bombs wrapped in a plastic grocery bag. The man explained to museum curator that he found the munitions back in 1943 when he was 15-years old. He explained to the woman that he and a schoolmate at found several incendiary bombs in a tree near their home. He explained how the bombs were safe because he and his friend "sawed the ends off to get the explosives out". Over the years, the devices eventually were made their way as bookends which sat on the man's shelf for over 50 years before he decided it was time to donate them to the museum.

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