Update 1:30 p.m. Sept. 28.
Penticton RCMP said officers responded to 3rd Street in Naramata where a resident found an old mortar shell while gardening.
The RCMP Explosive Disposal Unit attended from the Lower Mainland and safely disposed of the device which was date stamped 1945.
Officers from the unit retrieved the device around 10:30 p.m.
Original story
Irena and Nick Horzelenberg have only been living in their Naramata home for a month but what they found lurking in a bush by the front door has them shaken.
“I was surprised. I knew not to touch it,” said Irena.
The retirees found an unexploded WWII ordnance Monday afternoon.
They called the RCMP, who called in the bomb squad from Vancouver.
The Horzelenberg’s inspected the rest of their landscaping to ensure nothing further was hidden.
They are the third occupants of their home in a quiet retirement village near Okanagan Lake, but don’t want to jump to conclusions on how the old bomb ended up in the bushes of the five year old complex.
The bomb squad is expected near midnight to remove the item from their garden.