Warwickshire family travelled 180 miles home from Wales with live WWII shell
WHEN a Studley teenager brought home a holiday souvenir from his trip to Wales he did not realise quite what he had dug up.
Liam Cooper, 13, who is a keen collector of military memorabilia, had been metal detecting in Tenby with his family when he found an unexploded military shell and a number of bullets.
He was pretty pleased with his finds and the family kept them in the caravan with them for the weekend before driving the three-and-a-half hour, 180-mile trip home to Studley where he put it in his bedroom.
A few days later, however, he showed it to his uncle who said the bomb smelled of gunpowder. His dad, Anthony Cooper, immediately put the device in a bucket of water, moved it into the garden and called the police.
Officers attended and put a 100-metre cordon in place until technicians from the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit came out to assess the device. The team recovered the shell and established that as there was no ignition present there was no chance of it exploding and there was no danger to the public. They did, however, take it away.
Mr Cooper said: “We go metal detecting as a family a lot and always take the metal detector with us wherever we go.
“Liam was really pleased with this and wanted to keep it but the EOD said we couldn’t.
“We didn’t realise it was a live bomb when we found it, otherwise we wouldn’t have put it in the car!”
Liam is a pupil at Studley High School and has previously had a reward card recognising his passion and his love of history outside the classroom.
Warwickshire Police confirmed that they were called to an address in Studley following a report of an unexploded shell.
“This was reported to us at 8.14pm on 4th June. A boy had been metal detecting in Tenby and brought back a WWII anti-aircraft bomb. EOD attended. While they were on their way officers put in a 100m cordon around the device.
“EOD recovered the shell and established there was no ignition so there was no way of it going off.”
