A Barnhart woman made a surprising, and dangerous, find in her yard.
Pamela Coffey, 39, unearthed a World War II Japanese Navy mortar shell at about noon May 1 on a steep hill next to her family’s home.
The bomb fit in the palm of her hand and probably weighed up to 2 pounds, Pamela said.
“I was messing around in our side yard, which is on a huge slope,” Pamela said. “I was trying to keep my balance and yank grape vines off the trees and get them on the fence because they are going to kill my trees. I looked down and saw something. I pulled it out with my hands. I was able to get it out easily.”
She brought the explosive device inside and rinsed it off in the kitchen sink. As the dirt fell off, she saw Japanese writing on the object.
Her husband, Sam, used a knife to clean it more and remove dirt from the grooves. While he was cleaning the bomb, Pamela posted a couple of pictures of it in a Facebook group called “Things Found In Walls – And Other Hidden Findings.”
She said the post didn’t get a quick response, so she used Google Lens, an image recognition app, and discovered the object could be a World War II Japanese Navy mortar shell.
“That is when I started yelling at him (her husband) to maybe not play with it,” Pamela said.
Sam said after he looked at photos on his wife’s phone, he got the bomb out of their home.
“I picked it up as gently as I could, and I carried it outside,” said Sam, who owns a construction business. “I set it down on the driveway on the opposite side of my dump trailer and Bobcat. That way if something did happen, it would kind of be shielded from the house.”
Sam said after putting the bomb outside, he called the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office non-emergency number.
“It seemed like something that wasn’t a big deal, so I didn’t want to call 911,” Sam said. “I explained what I thought it was. I said, ‘I don’t know what you want me to do. Maybe this isn’t a big deal.’ The dispatcher said we need to get a deputy out there. Thank God she did.”
Disposing of the bomb
At about 6 p.m., Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the home, several hours after Pamela found the bomb.
“It sat on the counter for over an hour,” said Pamela, who has three children with Sam. “We have kids running around. We were busy. Everyone had to eat. That is what I went inside for (to make lunch).”
Sam said a deputy arrived, picked up the mortar shell and took some pictures of it. The deputy then forwarded the pictures to an agent at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“(The agent) got back to (the deputy) and told him to put that thing down,” Sam said.
Then, the deputy called the St. Louis County Police and requested a St. Louis Regional Bomb and Arson Unit respond to the home. The unit contacted Scott Air Force Base in Illinois to have an Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) team assist, said Lt. Sam Eckholm, a spokesman for the Air Force Base.
Eckholm said the EOD got a call at about 7 p.m. to head to the Barnhart home to help with the bomb. An X-ray device was used to examine the bomb.
“They determined that two of the fuses in it were not ‘safed,’ meaning it had the potential to be armed,” Eckholm said.
Sam said initially he was sitting on his porch watching everything unfold, but after authorities determined the mortar shell was live, he was told to go inside.
Eckholm said the bomb had a blast radius of 100 to 150 feet.
“After they X-rayed it, they confirmed it had active explosives and was the real deal. They then said don’t stand by the windows and get on the far side of the house,” Sam said.
Pamela and Sam said a swarm of police vehicles came to their home, which led to a couple of interesting moments.
The couple’s oldest child came home while the bomb was being examined.
“He thought something happened to us,” Pamela said.
She had pizzas delivered to a neighbor’s house so the family could have dinner, and she ordered extra for the police.
“You should have seen the look on the poor delivery girl’s face,” Pamela said. “She drives up and there are all these cop cars with their lights on and then the cops come up to her car to get the pizzas. She looked like a deer in headlights. It was an exciting evening at home.”
Eckholm said the EOD unit loaded the mortar shell into an explosive-proof container and transported it to St. Louis County Police’s bomb and arson explosive range.
“They used C-4 to detonate the device at the range to safely dispose of it,” Eckholm said. “This happened near midnight (on May 1).”
Backyard of discoveries
Sam said it is a mystery how the mortar shell ended up in his family’s yard.
“We don’t have a clue,” he said. “We are hoping because this thing is getting news coverage, someone will have knowledge about this stuff. A guy from the Air Force said more than likely a soldier brought (the bomb) home from the war, and he may have buried it in the yard for some reason.”
While the explosive device was the most unusual thing the Coffeys have found in their yard, it is not the first oddity they have unearthed since moving into the home 16 months ago from Cedar Hill to Barnhart.
While cleaning the hillside, Pamela said they have found curtain rods, fossils, shoes, rotors, a car ashtray and vintage CorningWare.
“The rest of the yard looks great, but this fenced-in ridge is a mini nightmare,” Pamela said. “We keep finding odd things.”
She said the couple has been told that a previous owner stored a lot of junk in the yard, and that may be why they are finding so many strange objects.
“There were people who lived here a decade or more ago and kept a lot of things back here,” Pamela said. “We don’t know all of the history of the property.”
The Coffeys had planned to excavate their yard on May 8, but have put that off because of the latest discovery, Pamela said.
They plan to first get a metal detector and sweep the yard to make sure there are no other surprises like the bomb.
Sam said he realizes how lucky he was the mortar shell did not explode in their home.
“It didn’t really set in how close I was to blowing myself and maybe my family up until the X-ray came back and we found out it was the real deal,” Sam said. “My heart stopped when I realized this could have gone in a different direction. It is still surreal to think I was holding a live World War II Japanese explosive in my hands.
“I don’t think we will bring anything in from the backyard to wash off in the sink again. We will probably be more careful.”