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> Major annoyance in Germany: If you find a mortar or a hand grenade in your garden. Do not try bring it to the police. That's not an annoyance, that's common
by mschuster91 2y ago
> Major annoyance in Germany: If you find a mortar or a hand grenade in your garden. Do not try bring it to the police.
That's not an annoyance, that's common sense.
I mean, I get it, it's not like in Croatia or Bosnia where every child ever since the 90s wars gets "the talk" not about condoms but about "this is how ammunition looks like, and remember that the enemy also placed mines in everyday waste like cola cans or in children toys, DO NOT pick up random stuff you find while playing and stay THE FUCK out of fields and forests marked with 'Pažnja mine' signs"... but hey even in Germany everyone should know that picking up ammunition is one of the dumbest ways to off yourself.
The only ones actually dumb enough to do that are people harvesting leftover ordnance for its explosives or to sell it on to "memorabilia" collectors [1], and headlines like [2] are routine whenever one of these collectors/harvesters either mishandles one of the items or they go off on their own.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWWGdxhSsS4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWWGdxhSsS4
[2] https://www.rheinische-anzeigenblaetter.de/rhein-sieg/c-blaulicht/hennefer-munitionssammler-sorgt-fuer-grosseinsatz_a228914 https://www.rheinische-anzeigenblaetter.de/rhein-sieg/c-blau...
- blueflow 2y agoAre you one of these persons who like to have cops on their property?
- bell-cot 2y agoCompared to your prior "Major annoyance" descriptive (for having the police visit), how would you rate being maimed or killed by exploding ordnance?
- blueflow 2y agoAs unlikely.
- cdogl 2y agoI’ll take some police briefly on my property over that gamble any day.
- blueflow 2y agoLetting cops on your property is not a gamble to you?
- lupusreal 2y agoIn Germany? If you hate the cops so much, that's all the more reason to let them deal with the sketchy bombs!
- tjoff 2y agoVery few industrial countries where that is a gamble.
- blueflow 2y agoCertain DIY things reliably cause questioning or even an investigation by the police despite being legal.
- HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago*May depend on race
- bell-cot 2y agoTrue. OTOH - I suspect that OD specialist officers, summoned to your property by your "I found something in my garden that looks a lot like that WWII mortar shell in your Call-us-immediately-if-you-see Guide" phone call would be far more benevolently inclined than regular police officers coming to your property for most other reasons.
- bluGill 2y agoAll alternatives are a gamble. In many cases letting cops supposedly trained in the matter is the least risky gamble - if they are trained as they are supposed to be there is no risk.
- fragmede 2y agoYour funeral. Quite literally. If you grew up in the US and didn't have the background "pensioner dies after discovering WWII ordinance in field" story every couple of years, it must seem unlikely indeed. But for those who do, they're not as stupid so as to think so.
- blueflow 2y ago> If you grew up in the US Yeah which isn't the case.
- fragmede 2y agofeel free to add "or any other country where that is the case" at the appropriate place in my comment so that it applies to you, if you need to be spoonfed.
- Ostrogoth 2y agoHey, you may have not intended it, but your response comes across with a bit of a condescending tone. Please help promote HN as a place for continued civil discourse.
- fragmede 2y agoThank you for pointing that out. Too late to edit, unfortunately. What response would you have given to the comment I replied to?
- Ostrogoth 2y agoI’m not sure what they meant, so tbh I probably just wouldn’t have replied. You made a good point that for someone in the US (or any other country that hasn’t experienced modern war), unexploded ordinance isn’t even on their risk radar, despite the US being a major contributor to the problem. It’s unfortunate how many people continue to face that reality.
- 2y ago
- mschuster91 2y agoI despise cops as an institution, but I'd rather have someone actually trained and especially equipped deal with that mess than risking to blow myself up. The level of PPE and training required to safely dispose of explosives far surpass what I can afford financially.
- floam 2y agoGosh, [2] there is annoying with the line breaks or perhaps paragraph elements breaking up sentences. It really hinders my browsers’ built in translation trying to translate these sentence fragments as sentences.
- mschuster91 2y agoThe tl;dr is basically some 51 year old dude had a laaaaarge cache of weapons and other explosives (e.g. from parachute emergency openers), of which some exploded for unknown reasons, firefighters and police showed up and found the remainder of the stash.
- lazide 2y agoAmmunition is generally not an issue, at least not small arms ammunition. Shells, grenades, and bombs are.
- mschuster91 2y agoI'm not a native English speaker, in Germany "Munition" also encompasses this kind of stuff. Besides you should not deal with "small arms" ammunition either, the explosive charges are no joke either and can seriously hurt you if you manage to accidentally ignite them, additionally lead is an issue.
- lazide 2y agoIn the US Munition covers ‘big stuff’. Like tank shells, artillery, grenades, etc. Small arms ammunition doesn’t have explosive charges? (20mm is about the smallest ammunition that does, with exceptionally rare exceptions, and that is generally considered ‘cannon’ ammunition, not small arms). Or do you mean primers? If so, those are exceptionally unlikely to hurt you or anyone else. Safety glasses are sufficient protection from literally setting small arms ammunition on fire.
- lupusreal 2y ago50 BMG had API rounds, I'm not sure how dangerous those might be today but I wouldn't be eager to risk it. Also it wasn't common, but snipers on both sides of the eastern front did have explosive rounds for their rifles and those can apparently do some damage. Probably enough to take off your hand if one went off.
- lazide 2y agoAPI rounds are generally pretty innocuous except for some minor fire danger, same with tracers in general. Possible to get burned if someone insists on holding it when it’s going off, I guess. Raufoss/Mk211 50BMG should be more dangerous, but that is pretty modern stuff. Exploding sniper rounds yeah could be a danger, but I haven’t found much concrete info on them. Being on the eastern front (or in Finland) though, plenty of really nasty stuff mixed in around them probably. Edit: found something! And damn that does look downright nasty/awesome. [https://forum.cartridgecollectors.org/t/7-62-x-54r-explosive-bullet-identification-needed/48150/7 https://forum.cartridgecollectors.org/t/7-62-x-54r-explosive...]