A SECOND world war hand grenade — with its pin missing — sat on a Callington garden wall for 24 hours this week before anybody realised what it was.
Ralph Yeo was digging in his front garden in Westover Road on Monday when he unearthed the relic, but it wasn't until the next afternoon that a neighbour recognised it for what it was and called the police.
'I didn't know what it was at the time, it looked like a lump of iron, so I put it on the gatepost,' said Mr Yeo.
'I was more concerned with getting out a lump of concrete. It was the daftest thing ever from what I understand now, the last thing you should do — the sunlight could have warmed it and it could have gone off at any time, but I didn't know that until now. I feel a bit of a Charlie.'
When the alarm was raised, Mr Yeo said all hell broke loose. The neighbours were evacuated and the area sealed off while Royal Navy bomb squad officers disposed of the potentially lethal relic.
Police searched the garden for any other devices, but Mr Yeo said he was still a bit concerned there might be more and plans to give the garden a good going over with a metal detector.