HARFORD COUNTY, Md. — A couple working on their flower bed in Harford County, Maryland, made a historic discovery this week: A round dating back to World War I.
Kelly and Shannon Thomas found the round Tuesday while gardening. They left the round in place overnight and contacted the Harford County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday evening. The sheriff's office called in bomb technicians from the Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office.
After the technicians examined the device, they felt the best thing to do would be to conduct an emergency disposal and render the unexploded ordinance safe. The round was disposed of on scene.
Oliver Alkire, Senior Deputy with the Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office, said the round was identified as a 37 MKI projectile. When found, the round was determined not to have been fired and the fusing mechanism was intact.
Maryland has a long history of military testing, most notably at Aberdeen Proving Ground on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay in Harford County. The Aberdeen Proving Ground is America's oldest active testing site. It was built six months after the U.S. entered World War I, in October 1917.
Alkire said the discovery of military ordnance from WWI & WWII is not uncommon in Maryland, and these devices pose the same threat as the day they were originally manufactured.
