Bombshell f ind after house clearance

AN auction house had to call in bomb disposal experts after examining items from a house clearance.

Staff at Lindsay Burns & Co in Perth raised the alarm when they found a Second World War bomb in a box of odds and ends.

Using their knowledge of armoury, they identified the green, metal cylinder as a war-time incendiary device.

Police cordoned off the building during the incident on Friday and advised the auctioneers to take the 1ft-long shell to a safe place outside.

A bomb disposal crew from Edinburgh arrived to collect it and took it to a remote Perthshire location where it was safely destroyed. It is believed that the bomb had originally been dropped by a German aircraft but failed to go off.

Auctioneer Nick Burns said: ‘It was strange because we had just been talking about the new Dad’s Army film. It reminded me of one of those episodes.

‘I said to everyone, “Keep calm and carry on”. We’ve had bullets and things like that before but we know we can take them to the police

‘I didn’t fancy putting an unexploded bomb in my car and driving it to the police station.’

He explained that the discovery was made while going through items from a recent clearance. ‘Obviously, it was a bit of a sur- prise,’ he said. ‘We had an idea what it was and using our knowledge of armoury we were able to identify it as a Second World War incendiary device.

‘I don’t know how it got into this collection in the first place, but there were a lot of other military items alongside it, so perhaps it had once belonged to a keen collector of war memorabilia.

‘It appears that it was a failed bomb dropped by the Germans.

‘We didn’t think there was any real risk, but we didn’t want to take any chances and called the police.

‘Following their advice, we took it outside and created a safety zone at the side of the building.

‘We placed it on an old piece of furniture so that it stayed dry and we made sure that nobody went near it. We were never advised to carry out an evacuation.’

Watches are the most popular item bought at auction north of the Border. They took first place in a top ten of lots snapped up by Scots bidders compiled by Barnebys, an internet site for accessing what’s for sale at auction internationally.

Cars and jewellery such as rings were the next most popular, followed by items including clocks, stamps, motorcycles and coins.

A spokesman said: ‘It seems time-watching is right up there alongside an ongoing love affair with the motor car and motorbike, a thrifty attitude to finding an engagement ring and some old-fashioned interests – coin and stamp collecting.’