My uncle had a artillery shell in his basement. Around 3 feet long, I think was a 75mm (it's been a long time and I was 13 at the time). Darn fool had it where his kids play could get to it. We all thought it was a training round, or a dud that had the charge pulled.

Until my aunt died in the early 80's that is. One of his buddies from his army days (Germany 1945-1947) came for the funeral. We went downstairs to talk and relax. This guy saw the shell, looked at my uncle and said "You still have that you damn fool? Where kids can get it, no less than 5 feet from the furnace and water heater. I'm sorry for your loss, but I will not sit here with 40 year old ordinance getting old and unstable." And he got up and walked out like he was walking on his own grave. He wouldn't stop till he was down the driveway and in the street (which was well below the level the basement). He told my dad that my uncle had been a gun bunny and that during an ammo draw for a live fire my uncle had counted wrong and got an extra round. Rather than having to reconcile a bad draw with extra rounds (anyone who's been in the military knows what a pain it is to reconcile unused ammunition) and face the heat for drawing too much, he shoved it in his duffle bag and smuggled it off the range. The shell had a plugged place for a nose fuse, and the base looked to have a primer in it.

We never did go back there either (my dad was also ex-military and did a quick 2+2 once he knew it was live). He moved out of the house about 4 years later and we've always wondered what happened to it. Did he take it with or bury it in the back yard?

/knowing what kind of prick he was I'd put money on the back yard.