Man Finds WWII Bomb In Garden, Lays Down On It When It Starts Whistling

Maybe it was one of those days where he just couldn’t even. Anyways,

WII raged on from September 1939 until September 1945, and during that time Europe & Asia were blanketed in bombs. To give you an idea of the scale, check out this interactive ‘living’ view by Brilliant Maps that shows you “every bomb dropped by the British and Americans during World War II, along with a limited amount of bombs dropped by the Australians, South Africans, and New Zealanders”.

Between 1939 and 1945, Allied planes dropped 3.4 million tons of bombs on Axis powers.

…And The Smithsonian estimates 10% of those bombs never exploded like they were supposed to. Just 340K tons of unexploded ordinance, still lurkin’ around where people live. NBD.

That’s why, 74 years later, people are still finding those bombs in all sorts of ways. In this case, it was a Dutch gardener ready to protect his patch of land at any cost.

From BBC News:

The man came across an unexploded World War Two device while gardening in the town of Venlo on Wednesday.

When it started whistling he covered it with his body, apparently trying to limit the damage. Security services spokeswoman Veronique Klaassen told AFP news agency the man had covered the device with sand but when it started whistling he put his body over it.

She said he dared not move and rang emergency services on his mobile phone.

Nearby residents were evacuated and the device proved harmless. The man was treated for symptoms of hypothermia.

The device was variously described as a grenade or a shell.

netherlands

The guy laid on that sucker in freezing weather until he became hypothermic… If that doesn’t up your street cred with the neighbors I don’t know what will.

Luckily it didn’t explode & he’ll live on to tell the tale when his flowers start blooming this Spring. Hope his garden is… the bomb this year.