You never know what you can find in your own backyard — but hopefully, you won’t find what this couple stumbled upon!
According to NBC affiliate KSDK, Sam Coffey (pictured above) and his wife Pamela Lovett were cleaning up their yard in Missouri when they happened to find a Japanese bomb from World War II — and brought it inside their house, oblivious to the fact that it was still live!
The couple told the station they were perplexed when they stumbled upon something shaped like a cylinder. The mysterious object (above, insert) was slightly larger than Pamela’s hand, and left rust marks on her gardening gloves, so she took it inside to clean it up. Coffey recalled:
“She sees this Japanese lettering on it. The next thing you know, I’m sitting at our dining room table scraping on it with a steak knife trying to clean it out.”
The couple tried to identify their mysterious find using the Google Lens app. While Coffey initially thought it might be a deep sea diving weight, his wife’s search revealed that they might be holding onto something way more dangerous.
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He continued:
“We’re trying to figure out what the heck this thing is when from the kitchen she yells, ‘Stop! I think that might be a bomb!’”
Turns out, she was right. They alerted police, who confirmed the couple’s suspicions — and told them that the bomb was still live. Coffey continued:
“They took it away in this huge blast-proof truck. I guess because it was so old, it was extremely volatile, so it had to be handled with extra precaution.”
Because officials didn’t want to take any chances, the couple were told to stay inside and away from all doors and windows for several hours as multiple agencies searched the surrounding area for any other forgotten military weapons. Thankfully, the lone bomb was the only object recovered, and it was removed by the St. Louis Regional Bomb and Arson Unit, which told the couple the bomb had a 500-foot blast range.
A spokesperson for Scott Air Force Base said the bomb has since been safely detonated. It’s still unclear how the explosive device ended up in their backyard, but Coffey is counting his blessings that no one got hurt. He said:
“I am incredibly grateful to be able to stand here and tell the story with all of my limbs still attached. This is why women live longer than men, because here I am, scraping a bomb with a steak knife when my wife makes me stop and call the sheriff’s department! I’m very grateful to my wife right now. I do have life insurance so I guess she’s kind of missing out.”
Ha!
Crazy story, huh?? What’s the weirdest thing you’ve found in your backyard, Perezcious readers?
[Image via KSDK]
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