Man kept grenades on mantelpiece

A Dutchman used old Second World War hand grenades as ornaments in his house – without realising they were dangerous.

Heimen van der Wal, from Makkum, kept the grenades on his mantelpiece for decades after discovering them in woods near Arnhem as a child.

“We though they were harmless,” his wife Marjan told the Antwerp Gazette. “Our children have even played with them.”

Mr van der Wal moved the grenades to a barn a few years ago. Last week, he showed them to a friend who immediately realised the danger.

“He was shocked and told us to alert the army’s bomb disposal unit, because the grenades were highly explosive,” he said.

An army spokesman said the family had been very lucky. One of the pins of the antique grenades was so rusty, any sudden movement could have caused an explosion.

Source : Ananova

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