I invited guests to play with a bomb in my garden

'I invited guests to play with bomb in my garden'3 days agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleAlex Dunlop,in NorwichandDanny FullbrookShaun Whitmore/BBCValerie Smith said she refused to leave when told about the bombFor 66 years Valerie Smith kept a bomb in her garden and invited her neighbours to play with it.Ever since her son brought it home as a child, the mysterious relic had been a "party piece" leaning against her shed, where guests would pick it up and pass it round during barbecues.The 87-year-old saw no reason to worry; her ex-army husband had inspected it decades ago and declared it was "only a shell".But on Tuesday a gardener spotted the device and alerted the police, causing all of her neighbours on Dowson Road, Norwich, to be evacuated.When officers told her she needed to leave, she refused.She recalls: "I said, 'no, sorry, I'm not. I've been there over 60 years with it, I'm going to stay another couple'."Ewan BarnardValerie Smith had invited friends and neighbours to handle the bombThe bomb had been spotted by Ewan Barnard, a biochemistry student at the University of East Anglia, who was working as a gardener.While trimming back Valerie's hedges and clearing brambles, the 24-year-old spotted a rusted, 50cm device that looked "almost like a mortar stood up on its tail".After trying to move the device from "the baking hot sun", he concluded the heavy device "might be quite dangerous" and rang the police.When he told Valerie what he had done she was far from impressed."I told the young boy off," she recalls.“Get you out” the Norfolk gal who kept calm and carried on.Having an explosive in her garden has never been a concern to Valerie.She admits she was not that interested when her son first showed it to her all those decades ago and let her husband deal with it. She says: "I ain't worried about it all these years, I wasn't worried...