“A Fairborn man who said he suffered second-degree burns to his right arm Monday when a shotgun shell exploded in his garage said he called police because he wanted to make sure nobody else got hurt by shells he forgot he had.” The un-named “victim” found three shells he estimated were 30 years old and put them on the workbench in his garage. One one fell off and, reportedly, exploded, burning his arm. And that’s when they brought in the bomb squad . . .

As the homeowner breathlessly told whiotv.com,

“I wanted the stuff out of my house before they hurt somebody else,” he said, noting they were shotgun shells filled with bird shot and gunpowder — the kind of shells used for shooting clay pigeons.

He said he called police because “we’ve got kids and we didn’t want to get hurt” and because he felt it was too dangerous to move the shells himself.

Police called for assistance from the Dayton Bomb Squad, which brought a crane-like machine to the entrance of the attached garage and removed the remaining shells.

Fortunately, Dayton’s hurt locker boys were able to wrestle the two troublesome twelve gaugers to the ground without the neighborhood going up in flames. Protecting and serving is a tough business sometimes.

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54 COMMENTS

    • High. I bet he wanted to see if they were still good so he whacked it with a hammer.

      My dad (he’s not the brightest bulb) did that years ago to an old .38 special cartridge he found in the street. The case exploded and sent brass shrapnel deep into his arm.

  4. Don’t know about the chances he hit it with a hammer, although will guess highly likely.
    What are the chances this guy is another dumbass in the gene pool!!!!

  5. I’ve never been near the business end of a shot gun shells going off, but wouldn’t you have to be fairly close to this “falling” shell to get burned? If it happened like he said and it fell from the bench to the floor, wouldn’t that put your arms out of reach of any “fire ball”?

    • I just read the linked story:

      “The shell hit the floor and went off, he said. He threw up his right arm to block the explosion, and said he was burned in the process…”

      That’s some mighty quick reaction time to notice the “explosion” and throw up your arms…

      • Might be fun to send the accident report to Mythbusters to see if they can replicate it.

        I’d bet on ‘busted’.

      • He may have misstated the chain of events too, as is prone to happening in emotional situations (which is why you always STFU). He could have had a flinch reaction and covered his face as it fell – thus his arms were already in place. This would have been an appropriate action, as opposed to trying to kick or catch it.

        I still don’t understand how something falling on the floor burnt his arms though. Or how a shotgun shell falling from table height sets off the primer for that matter.

  7. It is rediculous that the man called police to dispose of his remaining two shells, but their use of an EOD robot boggles my mind.

    Reading the article, perhaps he was on the floor working on the car when the shell fell near him?

  8. In the defense of the bomb squad, they didn’t know what was in those shells since the guy was talking about explosions. Its probably prudent to avoid losing an arm or hand when a robot could do the job just as well.

    • What else could possibly be in those shells? Some super secret ultra high yeild explosive? Or that the bomb squad doesnt know how relatively harmless smokeless powder is when not confined in a chamber that would allow pressure to build?

      Why dont we use robots when cutting lumber on a construction site, do you know how many fingers are lost every year? How about robots to hook up electrical wiring to prevent all those electrocutions? Or use robots to bolt steel i-beams together high in the sky to prevent all those unnessecary falls. Oh yeah now I remember why, tradesmen aren’t pussies like the “bomb squad”.

      Can anyone even link a story about a domestic bomb squad guy who was killed/injured by a bomb in the past decade?

  9. I cannot believe the casual way these shells of death were disposed of. This at least called for the garage to be entombed in 10 feet of concrete and the rest of the block leveled and surrounded by razor wire for all time. I live in Fairborn and I’m going to vote for the levy for the PD to buy helicopters that can carry and dump concrete just in case this happens again.

    PS – If any other Fairborners find this type of deadly menace call me and I’ll bravely and at great risk haul it away to be safely disposed of at a local range.

  10. I seriously doubt this guys story. Time to call the Mythbusters! Is it possible to drop a 12 gauge shotgun shell in such a way to make it go off and what type of fragment pattern would result? Hmmm

  13. I have been in the vicinity of exploding ammo, even shot shells. this story sounds bogus, very very bogus. No wonder the bomb squad was called in

  14. I would consider myself an ammo disposal team. So, if anyone comes into contact with ammo they don’t want or are too afraid of, I will step in an resolve the situation so everyone’s kids, wives, and husbands can sleep at night

    • A neighbor of mine was a police officer’s widow. When he was on the job & came across an armed Little Dicky Dimwith, he’d take the ammo out of the weapon & give the gun back. He wasn’t against people having guns, he just didn’t want stupid people doing stupid things to other stupid people.

      When he got home, he’d dump it in a big old flowerpot. After he died, she moved to Florida , taking the flowerpot full of ammo. She eventually got the cops (not sure if it was OPD or OCSO) to haul it away. I offered to take it off her hands, but she didn’t want it anywhere nearby.

  16. What a bunch of effing pussies.

    Clay pigeons? WTF…

    … he said, noting they were shotgun shells filled with bird shot and gunpowder …

    Thanks Professor.

  17. What I’m wondering is IF the shell fell off his workbench and ‘exploded’ with enough power to cause second degree burns on his arm, then why isn’t he severely burned elsewhere? (Say on his legs maybe?)

  18. He may be trying to cover up his own stupidity (hold my beer and watch this!) but has just announced his man card revocation to the world!

  19. We should all take out ads in our local papers: “Free Ammo Disposal. Tired of having all that scary ammo in the garage? Want to get rid of it for FREE? Call us at…”

    • Firearms as well!!!!!!
      Why wait for some bogus “buyback” program to come to your community ladies and gentlemen(?). {OK, just ladies of varying gender.} Just call your local TTAG poster and we will gladly remove both ‘evil’ firearms and ammunition at NO CHARGE. Just think of the great public service that we could render.

  20. Irresponsible Ammunition Owner of the Day. When I hear stories like this, I conclude that either it’s bogus, or the human race stands on a knife edge between disaster and survival. Knuckleheads like this are shaking the edge and trying to pull us all toward darkness.

  22. The real question that needs to be answered is how many dogs did the responding officers have to shoot to dispose of these dangerous mini nukes? We know its physically impossible for dogs to resist attacking responding police officers so what was the body count?

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