Man arrested with relic munitions

[mpw]

If he was caught by the authorities metal detecting on a protected historical site they do have the powers to confiscate his entire collection. It is then up to him to prove where the items came from. If he can produce proper receipts of purchase then those items should be returned. In this case it certainly looks like using a sledge hammer to crack a nut.

Mark.

[Jerry B]

there was already a thread on this so I have merged them together. I have had to do this a few times recently so please can the members try and check that they are not reposting subjects already active.

[HARRY THE MOLE]

Lets be honest over this. If you collect militaria you know the risks you run of having a knock on your door from PC Plod. In nine times out of 10 they will take any deactivated weapons away for examination, and any inert ordnance would have to be checked on the premises in case it was too unstable to move. If you are stupid enough to steal from heritage sites - and risk losing all your collection because of that... Well... as harsh as it sounds, you only have yourself to blame don't you? You cannot afford to step outside the law when you collect inert ordnance and deactivated weapons. The law will come down on you VERY hard!

[douglas2496]

Well I hope he is actually guilty of the offences he has been charged with. He has had his collection blown up and has not yet been convicted of anything.

[Jerry B]

I assume they only blew up items of ordnance and not the uniforms etc... and only those items which they considered to be dangerous.

[HARRY THE MOLE]

I assume they only blew up items of ordnance and not the uniforms etc... and only those items which they considered to be dangerous.

And there lies the problem with the Police... Only those items they consider to be dangerous are destroyed. There's an awful lot of items fall under that heading as far as the Police are concerned.

[Jerry B]

Unlike guns, with deac ordnance there is no paperwork to show them, so if in doubt would you start to dismantle a bomb to check if it was safe or just blow it up. As I already posted, he had a lot of live looking small arms/rifle ammo on his FB page, so who knows what else he had.

[HARRY THE MOLE]

I have a WW1 4.5 inch Howitzer shell sitting on a low brick wall in my back garden. It has been there for about 20 years. While I know that it is perfectly safe, it has over the years caused a bit of consternation whenever we have had workmen doing jobs on the house. A friend of mine - the late Stan Dobson - used to clean out old shells of any remaining residue by burning them on a barbeque stove. He eventually stopped this practice after a WW1 British toffee apple bomb ignited and took off before exploding at the bottom of his garden which overlooked Lymm golf club. Although it was only a small residue of explosives, it was enough to cause a bang of sufficient intensity to set off numerous burglar alarms in the area. This was the last time that Stan messed around with ordnance. I served in the Royal Artillery, and I am all too aware of the dangers which exist inside these rusty old shells. It is hardly surprising that the Police take no chances with such items.

[douglas2496]

You are quiet right of course, but I think there are real issues here which will concern many on this forum. I think this man has been treated very poorly. Bearing in mind that he has not yet been convicted of any offence, he has been publicly named and shamed, his collection opened up to sensationalist and ignorant media scrutiny and parts of his collection have been blown up.

It is also frustrating that we dont know the most important details of this case, such as did he actually have live ordnance in his house or not? The media (and to some extent I suspect, the police!) dont differenciate between live bombs and empty shells, live firearms and deactivated ones. This is the difference between harmless lumps of metal and those with the ability to blow up half the street.

[HARRY THE MOLE]

Its all about publicity and to show that the Police are doing their job to keep us all 'safe' from such dangerous objects in the hands of gun 'nuts.' The fact that they are more than likely harmless is a minor irrelevance...