Pretty bog standard article but interesting shell and, half way down, the article gets a little amusing...domino effect... Army detonates World War II-era shell FAIRFIELD TWP. — Lenawee County Road Commission workers clearing brush and trimming trees Thursday afternoon near the corner of Carleton Road and Furman Highway found an item in the ditch they never thought they would see. Lying exposed was an unexploded artillery shell, described by military officials as a 188 mm World War II-era German “bunker blaster.” According to Robert Lewis, operations manager for the road commission, an employee spotted the device at the bottom of the ditch and called it to the attention of his two co-workers. The discovery was reported to the Lenawee County Sheriff’s Department at 12:57 p.m. In a report released Friday by the sheriff’s department, responding officers confirmed the presence of the unused military-issue shell, approximately 30 to 36 inches in length and about 8 inches in diameter. Treating the shell as live, they in turn contacted the Michigan State Police bomb squad. Deputies immediately secured a perimeter around the location of the shell and went door to door in the surrounding community, alerting residents to the situation. Officers also contacted nearby Sand Creek schools and informed them of the perimeter to prevent school buses from coming near the area. Only one house was found to be unoccupied during the police officers’ initial attempt to contact people in the neighborhood. When the bomb squad members arrived, they assessed the situation and called for assistance from the U.S. Army explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) team from the Selfridge Army/Air National Guard Base near Detroit. The EOD personnel arrived on the scene at 10 p.m., determined the shell was too risky to transport and made preparations to detonate the device on site. Police officers again made contact with surrounding residents to inform them of the impending detonation and worked to ensure public safety. At 11:05 p.m., military officials used C-4 explosives to detonate the shell. The shock wave from the blast was felt moments later in areas as far away as Hudson and Addison. Police officials again contacted surrounding residents to confirm their safety and to assess any possible, preliminary damage. At that time, only pictures were found to have been knocked from walls. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, the unoccupied house from the officers’ checks of the neighborhood received significant damage. When Amie Fetzer returned from her home at 1 a.m., she discovered what the shock wave of an artillery shell detonation in close proximity to a house can do. Fetzer was not home when sheriff’s deputies went door to door. Her home was the closest to the scene. The shock wave from the detonation, Fetzer said, “blew the indoor shutters from the wall to the center of the room.” It also knocked a shelf off the wall, and items from the fallen shelf not only plugged the sink, but in a domino-like effect, activated the faucet handle into the “on” position. The faucet ran unchecked for almost two hours. In addition to the flooding, Fetzer reported that the home’s plaster walls and drywall are cracked, and pictures came off the wall. Fetzer’s pet dogs, inside the house at the time of the detonation, were unnerved but appeared unharmed otherwise, she said. A bird cage housing a pet bird was tipped over, but the bird also appears physically fine. “I had the sheriff’s department come out and look at the damage,” she said. Fetzer is working with her insurance company regarding the damage. Officials don’t know how the shell ended up at the location or to whom it belonged. The matter is under investigation by the Lenawee County Sheriff’s Department. If anyone can provide information about the shell or its previous owner, they are asked to call the department at 263-0524.
Reminds me of an episode of Dad's Army where the police arrive, who then call the army, who then call the air force etc etc etc
