Apparently, a waterworks crew dug it up a few months ago and left it in the shop.
When a rusting mortar round turned up on the tool bench of a public works building in Missouri, Derek McCubbin thought it looked suspicious.
"It was deteriorated. It looked like it had been buried at some point," he explained. "I wasn't aware if it was a training round or live, but I knew it was concerning and shouldn't be there."
Apparently, a waterworks crew dug it up a few months earlier and left it in the shop. McCubbin wasn't taking any chances and called the police.
"We had to treat it like it was live," Captain Clayton Knepp noted. "All the right people were called."
Military specialists from Kansas and Missouri examined the munition. And it turned out the thing was live.
They detonated it, and it left a 3-by-2-foot hole in the ground. After it was disposed of properly, everyone was able to get back to work.
But according to one of McCubbin's coworkers, this was kind of a big deal for the town of Rich Hill. "It's about the most exciting thing in this small town," they said.
In the end, everyone's breathing a sigh of relief at a close call that ended safely.
"You never know what you're going to come across," McCubbin added. "I'm just glad it ended the way it did, and everyone's safe."
