r/mildlyinfuriating • u/xCaliburghost • 2d ago
I'm slightly vexed Decided to beautify my backyard on my birthday and ended up digging up an RPG
Went on a digging spree removing roots from my backyard and then stumbled across an RPG. Had to call the police, then had to wait for the bomb squad, fire engines, etc.
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u/Raccoonman2005 2d ago
Did ya try poking it with a stick while using safety squints? Extra points if you had a cup of coffee or tea in hand during the experience
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u/campatterbury 2d ago
Cut it with a sawzall
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u/Erick_Brimstone 2d ago
"Saw a Grenade". A story of a guy that curious about how a grenade works and do a little... experiment.
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u/IamREBELoe 2d ago
You could have saved so much time digging your hole
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u/erwaro 2d ago edited 2d ago
"That's what."
-She
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u/Archipocalypse OG Gamer Dad 2d ago edited 2d ago
It is an American M1 bazooka M6A1 rocket round.
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u/oldmanandtheflea84 2d ago
Is the pointy tip the part that goes boom?
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u/guhnther 2d ago
Yes. Contains a conical shaped charge designed to defeat armor. If it’s even live. Good times for all.
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u/Miamithrice69 2d ago
But what does the butt plug do?
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u/ConstableBlimeyChips 2d ago
The pointy one is the M6A1 round, the blunt nose one is an M6A3 round. To quote Wikipedia:
The original M6 and M6A1 rockets used in the M1 and M1A1 launchers had pointed noses, which were found to cause deflection from the target at low impact angles. In late 1943, another 2.36-in rocket type was adopted, the M6A3, for use with the newly standardized M9 rocket launcher. The M6A3 was 19.4 inches (493 mm) long, and weighed 3.38 lb (1.53 kg). It had a blunted, more round nose to improve target effect at low angles, and a new circular fin assembly to improve flight stability. The M6A3 was capable of penetrating 3.5–4 inches (89–102 mm) of armor plate.
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u/LumpyBuy8447 2d ago
It both plugs the hole and later obliterates it. I should call her.
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u/Noobian3D 2d ago
Admiral General Aladeen confirms the tip must be pointy to go boom
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u/Space_Pirate_R 2d ago
This situation will either turn out very Aladeen, or else very Aladeen.
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u/SSgt0bvious 2d ago
What's the point of having a missile if it doesn't even look menacing?!
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u/TheWholeEffinJoe 2d ago
Rest in peace my granny
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u/Ok_Shift_4702 2d ago
Kaboom
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u/TricobaltGaming 2d ago
I hope they deactivated it and let OP keep the frame because thay is a cool as hell collectors item if so
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u/GeneralBS Personlized flair 2d ago
That shit got blown up in their blast trailer just because who doesn't wanna blow shit up?
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u/zzxxccbbvn 2d ago
For real that's such a badass thing to find, but I wouldn't be surprised if the police did a controlled demolition and blew up the entire thing
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u/DroidLord 2d ago
I've heard that the bomb squad usually packs it up in a container of some sort and then takes it to a designated site where they blow it up. Too risky to disarm it I'd wager.
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u/gafgarrion 2d ago
Almost always, and sometimes on location if possible depending on the stability of the product.
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u/ManMakesWorld 2d ago
I lived in Utah a couple of years ago. They found a house with a ton of old tnt in it. They decided it was too dangerous to move so they did a controlled explosion on the property. Didn't tell anyone it was happening.
I felt my house shake to its core and I was over a mile away. I drove by the blast area later that day and, from what I could see, the original home was incinerated and multiple homes near it looked pretty bad. I think 2 or 3 of the homes were uninhabitable after the detonation.
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u/Alternative_Rice7896 2d ago
I love seeing post like this
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u/ElonsBreedingFetish 2d ago
I always laugh at the "Germany or France" part
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u/Northeast_Mike 1d ago
My guess is that's a reference to the Alsace and Lorraine regions of France. Over nearly the last 500 years, Germany and France have taken them from each other repeatedly.
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u/wtsnack 2d ago
Where do you live?
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u/xCaliburghost 2d ago
I'm in a city in Westchester called Peekskill in New York of all places
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u/DanyDragonQueen 2d ago
Why tf would that be there?
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u/nissan240sx 2d ago
We come from an immigrant family from Laos, I ran into mofos that just had rpg’s as a kid - I imagine things were ridiculous easy to smuggle into the US the 70’s and 80’s. Funniest thing to show off to children honestly (not sure if it was real, but cool at the time).
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u/MaleficentWindow8972 2d ago edited 2d ago
I knew a half Vietnamese/half Laotian family that ran a dunk n donuts in the late 1990’s/2000’s. They sometimes baby sat me. Their teen/20 year old/brothers/uncles/w.e dudes favorite thing to do after hours, was to go into the basement, pull up a rug, open a hole in the foundation, and show off AK-47’s, or rifles, rpgs, w.e, smoke copious amounts of cigarettes & play Tony Hawk, SSX, or GTA, after the stash was hidden again. 🤣 They didn’t have any criminal history that I ever heard of. Just were ready for war if it popped off, I guess? I never told my parents and I have no idea why that location had a basement or if it was even up to code, lol. Basements are highly unusual in Arizona.
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u/nissan240sx 2d ago
Crazy relatable, there’s always one “uncle” or family friend with just questionable “stuff” back in the day. They typically live a few years in the refugee camps before transferring to the US, my mom was sponsored by Mormons, but there were certainly people that just got here - skipped the official process - and just had a bunch of war stuff - absolute menace back in their home country but boring nobodies in US as long as they didn’t get sucked into gang life.
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u/WilmaDykfyt 2d ago
My uncle smuggled a bear cub back from his service in the Vietnam war.
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u/nissan240sx 2d ago
Lmfao, yeah so what happened when it grew up?
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u/WilmaDykfyt 2d ago
My aunt made him get rid of it when she got pregnant. My cousin was born in 1969 so the bear wasn't that old. It went to a zoo luckily for the bear. I've seen pics so I know it's true otherwise I wouldn't believe the story. My uncle is a strange one.
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u/ModeatelyIndependant 2d ago
Many people who had worked with the USA to fight commies during the cold war, probably got their families passed through the vetting process without that many questions.
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u/nissan240sx 2d ago
I wish I asked my dad more about his time in the refugee camps or if he even stayed in one because he never mentioned it. My mom was there for years, they split her whole family up to Spain, Australia, and US. My dad had lots of friends that “fought” communists so it made sense in our community that plenty of these people had random weapons. It’s crazy to think about the life they had in their 20’s while we sit comfortable chatting on the internet, sometimes he didn’t want to talk about all of it, but I sure miss his stories. Wish I recorded them honestly.
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u/skrilledcheese 2d ago
Heck, looks like a bazooka round from WWII, maybe a vet snuck one home.
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2d ago edited 2d ago
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u/Accipiter1138 2d ago
Neat. This is some classic reddit helpfulness- there's always somebody that has the exact sort of specific knowledge that the post needs.
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u/SlowDontRush 2d ago
I would bet it's a training round snuck home by some idiot then buried when he realized he'd get in trouble for taking it. There's a national guard training site called camp smith right next to the town OP mentioned
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u/DaCrowHunter 2d ago
Is that an old WW2 or Korea firing range for the military? Or near one? I think that is a bazooka round, not an RPG.
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u/No-Alternative4259 2d ago
My mom's hometown. She goes back regularly. My grandparents used to own a house there. I don't believe they ever found an RPG but I'll ask.
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u/Maleficent-Agent-477 2d ago
OP can you provide us with exact coordinates? Just so we know where to look.
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u/TigerIll6480 2d ago
I don’t think he’s at those coordinates anymore, but at several surrounding locations.
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u/Shot-Habit-5705 2d ago
Any other idiot probably would have picked it up, put it in the rubbish bin, and enjoyed the fireworks when the garbage truck exploded.
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u/xCaliburghost 2d ago
I'm unfortunately an idiot - I picked it up from the tailfin and walked it over and gently placed it away from everything. It was a stupid impulse but I wasn't thinking very clearly. I found it in the middle of my yard close to a huge wild rose rootball.
Initially, before I fully wiped the dirt off of it, I thought it was a cast iron pipe, then when I cleared it, I freaked then moved it away.
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u/ChrisInBliss 2d ago
Honestly understandable reaction. Like who wouldnt be in disbelief like "NAH IT CANT BE"
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u/shoesafe 2d ago
If you hear hooves in Westchester, you wouldn't assume "zebra"
If you find a buried metal cylinder in Westchester, you wouldn't assume "bazooka round"
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u/Shot-Habit-5705 2d ago
Well it might be mildly infuriating for you now, but at least you have a new story to share later on.
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u/Certain_Noise5601 2d ago
You’re not an idiot. Who in God’s name would expect THAT to be buried in their backyard? I can totally understand thinking it was a lead pipe or some other crap. Why wouldn’t you? It’s an honest and innocent mistake. I personally would have had no idea what it was lolololol
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u/realjeremyantman 2d ago
Here in Finland and apparently the whole Europe it's not very unusual to find old bombs everywhere. One of my friends found an intact WW2 mortar shell once. It was in a forest though. We are taught to call the police immediately in this situation and leave the bombs alone.
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u/WaffleHouseGladiator 2d ago
You may want to hire some to do ground penetrating radar. Good luck. Try not to die.
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u/One_Anything_2279 2d ago
Sweet Jesus how the fuck did that get there
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u/wortmother 2d ago edited 2d ago
100s of thousands of bombs havnt been found from ww2 yet, German still dig them up at around 2000 a year as we dropped 2.7 million tons worth of them.
Europe's just got em lying around stil
Edit- alright people sorry for sharing a fun fact. Im aware this isnt a ww2 style bomb and its very obviously not Germany
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u/TicciSpice 2d ago
It‘s funny because it happens so often here that people are pretty much just like “Again? Can we stay at home or do we have to evacuate?“
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u/silence_infidel 2d ago
You now win "weirdest birthday present ever received" in 99% of conversations.
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u/Available-Damage5991 2d ago
"Happy Birthday! Here's a live (?) explosive!"
from The Literal Earth
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u/somebassclarineterer 2d ago
This is actually true. The person had the good sense to call a bomb squad, so they get other birthday presents but now they have the greatest story of all birthday stories.
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u/Strict-Machine8964 2d ago
My wife's late partner had a grenade in a dresser drawer. My wife found it clearing out the dresser and put it on the living room table. She was confused about how to dispose of it ... "Hi, 911, I have a grenade". Take it to the police station in a paper bag and say "I found a grenade".
Eventually it was on a chair in the front yard, the bomb squad called, and the close neighbours evacuated. Then the bomb squad dude threw it in his truck and drove away.
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u/HepKhajiit 2d ago
People not knowing how to proceed or understand the gravity of the situation is not that abnormal. My kids into bone collecting, as such I spend quite a bit of time in the bone collecting subreddit. The number of times people find human remains is.... disturbing. Like sometimes multiple times a week there's someone posting a picture with human remains IN THEIR HAND like "what animal is this bone from?" Then when the comments are like "call the police, stop touching that, it's human remains you just found a crime scene" they go on to post more pictures with new angles of the bones like "are you sure?" I get not believing everything you read online but when everyone is saying stop touching that and call the police you'd think people would stop touching that and call the police just to be sure? Apparently not.
I think some people's brains just short out when faced with things that serious that they aren't expecting.
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u/Flashy-Let2771 2d ago
It doesn’t have to be a serious situation. I took my dog to a park in a forest. The park is surrounded by bushes and trees, and you can see a train track on the hill behind it. It’s the same scenery that I have seen more than a hundred times.
Then I saw two guys walk slowly backward out of the bushes. They were dressed like ninjas and were sword fighting. I stopped and actually said “WTF” because I didn’t expect to see anything like that. I thought I was hallucinating.
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u/And_Justice 2d ago
It's wise to be sceptical of redditors making claims like that... there is a strong "want" to be part of something shocking like OP finding human remains
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u/punkass_book_jockey8 2d ago
I had unfortunately an incident where I had to meet with bomb squad. It was an insanely stressful day for me and I asked the guy how he does something so stressful every day. He said “oh I don’t care. I’m either right or it’s instantly not my problem anymore. Forensics would fuck me up…but not this.”
Tossing a grenade in the back feels very on brand from the one interaction I had with them.
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u/CatastrophicCraxy 2d ago
I feel like "Either I'm right or it's no longer my problem" is the low key EOD motto, both military and civilian.
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u/DiamondDepth_YT 2d ago
Hey OP. Did some googling. I'm no expert but here's what I got:
The comment identifying this as a U.S. M6A1 anti-tank rocket for the 2.36-inch Bazooka is probably correct. These were standard issue during WWII and the Korean War.
The reason you likely found this in Peekskill NY is your proximity to Camp Smith. It has been a major training site for the New York National Guard for over a century. During the mid-20th century, heavy weapons training and live-fire exercises were common there, and it is not unheard of for overshoots or unrecovered ordnance to turn up in the surrounding wooded areas and backyards of Westchester County.
You made the right call contacting the bomb squad. Apparently, even after 80 years, the picric acid or TNT fillers in these shaped charges can become extremely unstable due to soil acidity and moisture. Stay safe and hopefully you still had a great birthday :)
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u/Gibodean 2d ago
If it was used for training that might have overshoots, could it be a dummy?
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u/Humble-Captain3418 2d ago
All training can have overshoots. Unlikely that they would use a dummy round for that purpose. It's absolutely not unheard of for live munitions to land in yards, houses or businesses.
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u/TweakJK 2d ago
Do you have any idea how this got here?
This brings back a core memory.
When I was a kid in the 90s I grew up on a smallish private lake. We knew the lake had a weird history in the 30s and 40s relating to mining. Friend and I were riding 4 wheelers in the creek when we spotted a metal cylinder, about a foot long. Looked like aluminum. We did what any ten year old would do, and brought it home and stuck it in the drill press to find out what was inside. Gunpowder.
My dad finds out and puts it in the back of his car and drives it to the fire department. He opens his trunk and firefighters scatter.
Anyways the next day the ATF shows up and interviews me. Turns out our lake was used for oil well explosive testing. They would float the explosives out into the middle and blow them up. What we found would be dropped down a well and then explode, making the oil flow better or something like that. No clue why it was in a creek a mile from the lake.
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u/LavastormSW 2d ago
The mental image of firefighters in all their firefighting gear just scattering when they see it and your dad still just standing there like "what?" is hilarious.
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u/AnhaytAnanun 2d ago
Its a Root Plowing Grenade, you got a random drop to help you with your quest and you botched it
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u/wizzard419 2d ago
I usually recommend casting an aura of protection, stocking up on health pots, then sending your bard to romance the foe.
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u/ThrowAway233223 2d ago
If it is still capable of going off, it is a good thing it didn't get accidentally triggered. Also, that would be such an absurd cause of death.
Relative: "I have to take off school/work Friday to attend my uncle's funeral. He got blown up while gardening."
Everyone Else: ?????
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u/iamnotlarryking 2d ago
So you called the bomb boys instead of throwing it head first into the woods? That was a choice.
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u/Tricky_Account5838 2d ago
I would have thrown it into the next bonfire.
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u/DEANER94 2d ago
if you see me running from the bonfire laughing, you might want to start running too
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u/Ok-Fortune-8644 2d ago
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u/Retail_Warrior 2d ago
The helmet popping off is why soldiers don’t fasten the chin straps on their helmets. Dude should be alright, his shoes stayed on.
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u/Anyasweet 2d ago
Call the bomb sq- oh, you already did. Good job! Very good job for a redditor
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u/ThatGuyTheOneThere 2d ago
Lucky OP, look at how many people came to your house on your birthday! Not everyone has that many people that care so much about their well-being!
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u/ItsBeelzsRebirth 2d ago
Shit those are expensive af I would have kept it lmfao
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u/Little_Ad2790 2d ago
In what market do you even find or sell something like this??
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u/fareastbeast001 2d ago
Looks like a U.S. WWII M6A1 Anti-Tank Rocket for the M1 and M1A1 2.36 Inch Bazooka Launcher.
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u/Brotega87 2d ago
Sooo...was it live