For the second time in a week, a piece of 20th-century military ordnance was fished out with a magnet from the Charles River in Needham, Massachusetts.
On Wednesday, a group of people were using a magnet in the river to lift up items when, at around 11:30 a.m., they fished out an intact piece of military ordnance, the Needham Police Department said on Facebook.
The shell was a bazooka round thought to date to World War II, a Massachusetts State Police (MSP) Bomb Squad spokesperson told regional news site Boston.com.
The magnetic angler, YouTuber Josh Parker, was immediately wary of the weapons-grade munition.
“I’m speechless, I’m shaking, I’m nervous. When you’re dealing with something that literally could explode, you want to be very, very careful,” Mr. Parker told WBZ-TV right after pulling up the round.
Local police and firefighters secured the area before the state bomb squad came and detonated the round safely at around 2:36 p.m., Needham police said on Facebook.
The bazooka round was the second piece of ordnance that magnets had dredged from the Charles River in the past week. At around 6:30 p.m. Friday, YouTuber Sean Martell brought up another shell, a mortar.
“As soon as I put it down, I saw that it had the head on it still, and I was like, ’I’m going to have to call the police,’” Mr. Martell told WBTS-TV.
The mortar is thought to date to around World War I or World War II, MSP spokesperson Dave Procopio told Boston.com.
State troopers who responded to the scene confirmed it was a deteriorated military shell and safely detonated it, the state patrol said on Facebook.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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