A man is daring to use a World War II bomb – that ruined his barbecue – to cool his beer.
Ross Miller was mowing his lawn on Saturday when he stumbled upon a 1940s bomb casing weighting a mighty 11kg.
The home’s previous owners told Ross about something metallic buried in the garden but thought it was part of the water supply.
On further inspection, Ross spotted a percussion cap looking much like that of a bullet, along with the date ‘1940’ on the casing.
Concerned for the safety of his nine-year-old daughter, Hannah, he decided to call emergency services.
West Mercia Police advised him to keep his distance and send over any photographs he had taken.
Shortly after, they set up a 100-metre cordon around the area and closed his street in Putley, Herefordshire.
The cordon was lifted after a couple of hours after an explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) unit, accompanied by an explosives detection dog, arrived to inspect the bomb.
‘After about two hours of waiting around, EOD turned up and said ‘”yep it’s a 25-pounder’”,’ Ross said.
They confirmed there were no remaining explosives inside the shell before cleaning it and handing it back to Ross as a quirky souvenir.
He now plans to polish it up and use it as a beer cooler for his rescheduled barbecue.
(Picture: PA)
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‘I’m going to put ice in it and use it to hold bottles of beer,’ he said, adding that it should serve as a great conversation starter.
Ross added: ‘When you find something like that in your garden, you’ve got to do something.
‘It was a bit of a waste of a day, but I’m glad everything turned out safely.’
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