20 Arkansas homes evacuated because of Civil War landmine

Back then they called them “torpedoes”.

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HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — Police in Hot Springs, Arkansas, have evacuated about 20 homes after a man mistook a Civil War-era landmine for a cannonball and took it home.

Police say as of about 4 p.m. Thursday that the U.S. Air Force Bomb Squad was looking for a place to explode the ordinance.

Police spokesman Cpl. Kirk Zaner said a Hot Springs man dug up what he thought was a cannonball near Danville. The man put the 32-pound landmine in the back of his pickup and drove about 65 miles home.

After researching pictures of Civil War-era weapons, the man called police to say he thought he found a landmine with a pressure sensor fuse. Zanier says the Air Force bomb squad X-rayed the device and found what could be explosives inside.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/20-arkansas-homes-evacuated-because-of-civil-war-landmine/ar-BBrcZqL?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=spartandhp