The person in question has lots of dug up small arms ammo posted on his Fb page and I would assume that a lot of that will still be live, perhaps he has larger caliber items not shown there. He also has lots of dug up cap badges etc... and how diligent he was about getting permission to dig is not known to me.
Regards,
Jerry
Whateverits just an opinion.
Clearly I don't know the ins and outs of this case. He may well have been digging illegally. What concerns me is the level of response associated with it. Not that I have much in the way of ordnance, but I find this very discouraging and somewhat depressing as a young collector, and frankly if I didn't take so much pleasure from my hobby I would consider jacking it in, as for me, some of the most interesting aspects of collecting come from items that appear to be frowned upon by the general public, police and media
In fairness, whilst the response may appear to be over the top it is always better to be safe than sorry. I can tell you if a gun has been deactivated legally by looking at it, I can't tell you if a gun is an obsolete calibre as I don't know anything about them. I have deactivated grenades, If you put a live one next to them I couldn't tell the difference. This is why the police seize firearms, to get them checked by an expert, and why they call EOD. EOD make the decision to blow things up not the Police.
At the end of the day we all collect militaria because we have an interest in it, not everybody does. If your neighbour blew up the street because he had a bunch of unstable WW1 shells you wouldn't be happy. Over the top response in appearance? Possibly. Necessary? I wouldn't want to be sniffing mustard gas or picking shrapnel out of the kids hair.
Collection seized in England
Hi lads,
Here is a youtube video from media reporting the seizure of a ww1/ww2 collection in England.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?annota...&v=SmQE1yqoDGA
Cheers!
Some collection too, what possible harm will deac weapons etc can they cause one mans hobby and lifetime collection going up in smoke, the words "if they are safe they will be destroyed", crazy.
I thought about that, and it seems that the legislation is quite harsh. Will they blow up deac weapons and ammo? Just adding that collecting live ammo, especially when you have kids and in a busy neighborhood, is reckless.
Totally agree, if of course they are live, you can clearly see drilled holes in some, the weapons well who knows many thousands of Brits have them, re enactors etc, many are for sale too legally.
It seems the issue here is that he carried out his activities on English Heritage sites without their permission. They are known to be particularly anal about this type of thing and whilst they are are at pains (rightly so) to prevent devastation of historic sites by treasure hunters they generally know little of this kind of thing and apply even less common sense. Too much corduroy, beards and leather elbow patches I feel!
The police know even less about such things and really don't know arse from elbow when it comes to militaria. Because of this and being totally (obsessively) risk averse they won't do anything other than shout for the Army (I have experience in both organisations).
The Army have no choice and even if the ATO on scene believes the items to be inert his SOP will still be to make certain by destruction of the item.
I would be surprised if there is a single live round here but that won't help this poor bloke who has upset the Great and the Good of EH as well as the ingorant PC Brigade.
That said he has likely broken a minor law here and some idiot has grassed him up so please be careful gents.
Regards
Mark
Great post.
I see a related story has just broken
A man suspected of illegally obtaining artefacts and munitions from the two world wars through metal detecting has been arrested after the items were found in Oxfordshire.
The 35-year-old was held on suspicion of "theft from heritage and protected sites" following the discovery in Buckingham Crescent, Bicester.
Controlled explosions are due to take place to dispose of the First and Second World War artefacts and munitions found at the residential property.
Thames Valley Police said the find related to an operation earlier which uncovered suspected stolen wartime items in St Albans, Hertfordshire.
Man arrested over wartime artefacts - Bexhill Observer
Regards,
Jerry
Whatever
Similar Threads
Posting Permissions
.
Bookmarks