Local man blows himself up with mortar round.....

No, this didn't happen in Afghanistan, although I'm sure it is more common there than here in the Wilmington De suburbs of New Castle.

So, apparently this guy serves in Vietnam, and when his tour(s) are over, he somehow manages to sneak some mortar rounds back home with him(???!!!) Then he places them into a locked ammo box, and doesn't bother telling his wife or family that mortars are sitting in their garage! He then passes away in 1999, his wife still not knowing about the surprise waiting in the garage.

Fast forward to earlier today, and his widow is cleaning out the garage, and she finds the locked ammo box, and decides to set it out at the curb with the other stuff she's throwing away, for the trash guys to take away, when her 58-ish year old neighbor asks if he can keep the ammo box, and she says yes.

So he takes it and sets it on his truck's tailgate and manages to open the lid. This is when the story gets cloudy. According to Delawareonline, a mortar round somehow managed to spontaneously explode upon the opening of the lid, but that makes no sense, besides if that we're to happen, it would've caused the other rounds to explode as well.

However, the story given by the TV news was that he picked up one round and threw it into a trash can, and it detonated. That makes more sense. But I'm amazed that he didn't recognize it as a mortar round, because they have a pretty common basic shape, and you see them on the news, in movies, etc.

The guy was injured and is in critical condition with shrapnel wounds, which leads me to think that maybe it was just a powerful practice round, because I'd imagine it would be difficult to survive the force of a real mortar round if you we're within remotely close proximity.

But regardless whether its a real or practice round, doesn't it seem scary that someone was able to bring them from the battlefield to their home? Not to mention leaving it there for your family or neighbors to be killed or injured by.....

But what seems equally ridiculous, is the idea that someone would pick up a mortar round and throw it! What were the words to that Jim Croce song? "You don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't spit into the wind, you don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger, and you don't throw live mortar rounds into trash cans!"

I'm sorry to hear about this tragic turn of events.

Still, it makes one wonder just what this guy could have been thinking. This device would not only have had the obvious appearance of some kind of ordnance but he had just removed it from a LOCKED ammo box!

Strange, but just yesterday in another thread I made a comment I will repeat here...."Wow!! That guy almost won himself a Darwin Award!"

Hope the fellow has a good recovery.

I don't know what those things look like but I'm astonished that they could wind up in the hands of an unsuspecting civilian here in the states. I hope he pulls through and is able to live as normal a life as possible.

I would find it difficult to differentiate between a live round and a practice round. I've handled some large munitions over the years, and some of the time you only know it's a dummy when you look at the primer. A civilian would not know to look for special colors or markings. I'm not sure that I'd recognize a Vietnam era mortar round.

My initial thought would be that they were disarmed, but my natural caution would make me call for an expert.

Daniel

HighlanderNorth said:

But what seems equally ridiculous, is the idea that someone would pick up a mortar round and throw it!

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EZO said:

Still, it makes one wonder just what this guy could have been thinking. This device would not only have had the obvious appearance of some kind of ordnance but he had just removed it from a LOCKED ammo box!

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gadget_lover said:

.......but my natural caution would make me call for an expert. Daniel

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Reminds me of a saying:

Beer, the cause of, and solution to, all of Mankind's problems.


~ Chance

Looking at the trashcan [rubbermaid tupperware] it looked largely intact. My best guess was that the baseline charge detonated on impact but not the actual warhead, which would probably explain why both his trashcan and pickup was fully intact. the charge sent the contents of the trashcan into his face and everywhere else but likely the actual mortar is still in the trashcan. Had it went off expect a crater where the trashcan was

news: http://www.delawareonline.com/artic...w-Castle-man-covered-shrapnel-after-explosion
picture: rehosted:

People do the dumbest things! We had a bunch of guys who appropriately named themselves the "Crap For Brains Hunting Club" and they trespassed on posted land, which was a disused military firing range.
Alcohol was involved.
One of the group found an old rifle grenade, and tossed into the fire. It exploded, injuring several of them...and they sued the State for damages...unsuccessfully.