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Shell-shocked: Taiwan woman finds husband’s artillery shell ‘souvenir’ while cleaning

Man brought home shell casing 50 years ago after military service

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A woman in Kaohsiung finds a rusted artillery shell weighing six kilograms while cleaning at home. (Kaohsiung Police Department Sanmin Second Pre...

A woman in Kaohsiung finds a rusted artillery shell weighing six kilograms while cleaning at home. (Kaohsiung Police Department Sanmin Second Pre...

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The 8th Field Army deployed a bomb squad on Monday (July 11) after a woman found a rusted artillery shell at home in Kaohsiung.

UDN cited the 71-year-old woman surnamed Yuan (袁) as saying that her husband, a 93-year-old man surnamed Mao (毛), had brought the shell home in the 1960s after picking it up during his military service in Kinmen. Mao had stored his prized “souvenir” in a corner of the kitchen until Yuan found it while cleaning.

When Yuan asked if the shell was explosive, Mao, who suffers from dementia, was unable to give a coherent answer. Fearing that the shell may go off and cause harm, Yuan moved it out of the house and notified the village chief.

CNA reported that the Kaohsiung City Police Department Sanmin Second Precinct received a report about the incident on Monday afternoon at around 3 p.m. The police sealed off the scene and notified the 8th Field Army.

The shell measured 60 centimeters in length and weighed 6 kilograms. A preliminary inspection showed that the shell did not contain gunpowder and was in fact just a casing and posed no risk of harm.

Yuan agreed to let authorities take the shell for disposal.

Shell-shocked: Taiwan woman finds husband’s artillery shell ‘souvenir’ while cleaning
(Kaohsiung City Police Department Sanmin Second Precinct photo)