Community / ‘It was a surprise to me’ – how live World War II ammunition ended up in a garden in Mossbank
A WOMAN has explained how she came to have a historic World War II anti-aircraft shell lying in her back garden for a couple of years – without realising what it was.
On Wednesday a navy bomb disposal team arrived in Shetland to dispose of the live projectile in a safe space nearby in a controlled explosion.
The item was located in Natasha Lindsay’s garden at Sandside in Mossbank.
She explained that the old piece of ammunition was not uncovered through digging, as one might have expected.
Lindsay, 30, instead said that the item was brought home a couple of years ago from elsewhere by her ex-partner who is interested in using metal detectors.
It was actually his dad who raised the alarm after remembering about the item when a gas cylinder was found on a nearby beach, which prompted the coastguard to cordon off the item at the weekend.
Lindsay said she never really asked about the metal item in her garden when it was taken back as discoveries were regularly brought home, adding that she naturally forgot about it over time.
“Me being me and so used to him bringing back all manners of things from his wee metal detecting trips, I never bothered or thought much about what this new thing was that he found,” she said.
“I didn’t ask much about it or really looked at it. So he told me he put outside and I never thought anything of it again.
“It’s crazy to think of what it actually is and that it’s been lying in the garden. I had completely forgotten that there was anything in my garden and didn’t think it would be what it turned out to be.
“I’m really glad that my ex-partner’s dad had mentioned it was in my garden because goodness knows how much longer it would have just laid there with me not minding anything about it.
“It was a surprise to me and I honestly just found it hilarious – this kind of thing would only happen to me. Never a dull moment in my life.”
Police said they received a report of the item in the garden on Sunday (7 March). The coastguard said the gas cylinder on the beach, which required no action from the disposal team, was reported on Saturday.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence said Royal Navy bomb disposal experts from the Clyde-based Northern Diving Group travelled to Shetland to investigate the item.
It is not unusual for wartime ordnance to be found in Shetland, with hand grenades and bullets discovered in recent years.
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