Bomb squad scrambled as mum lists live missile for sale on eBay

She believed it was an empty German artillery round from the Second World War and let her children play with it. 

One had even asked to take it to school for a show and tell session. 

But she was forced to call the police after someone familiar with military souvenirs spotted her ad on eBay and got on touch to say the “dud” could be lethal. 

Officers visited her home in Spalding, Lincs, and in turn sent for a bomb disposal squad from nearby RAF Wittering to carry out a controlled explosion.

Tracie said: “I often buy things from auctions and markets and sell them for a bit more money and people always like military stuff. 

“So I stuck it on eBay and a collector got in touch and said it looked live. 

I thought, ‘Oh my God’, because my kids had been chucking it around.” 

Tracie’s children Logan, 11, Halle, 15, and Antigone, 17, were desperate to watch the explosion but had to go to school. 

She added: “The bomb squad told me that if it was dead the explosion would just be a small ‘pfff’ and if it was live then it would be a ‘bang’ – and it definitely went bang.” 

The shell was thought to date from between the wars and was possibly a tracer round, meaning it would have lit up and left a trail on its way to a target. The RAF said: “We’d remind the public that explosives do not improve with age. 

“If anybody finds something they are unsure about call police straight away.”