AI told man to call 999 when he took picture of 'lump of metal' in conservatory

AI told man to call 999 when he took picture of 'lump of metal' in conservatory Stanley Green was thinking of melting down the unidentified object for lead A grandad who had been displaying a lump of metal in his conservatory for 10 years after finding it while metal detecting had to call the bomb squad after asking AI what it was. Stanley Green had kept the lump of metal in his conservatory in Kemsley near Sittingbourne, Kent. The former bird breeder, 61, unearthed the six-inch object around 10 years ago while metal detecting. He had a heart attack shortly afterwards and his health became a priority. So he simply placed the object on a shelf in his conservatory, next to his living room, and didn’t think much more about it. Then on Monday afternoon, Stanley decided to try and solve the mystery and asked Google Lens – an Artificial Intelligence platform that can search the internet for similar images and answer questions – what it was. It told him that what he now had sitting on his coffee table was a German incendiary bomb. The AI platform also gave a “critical warning” telling him not to touch it and call emergency services immediately. The grandad of 22, who has lived in the village near Sittingbourne for around 40 years, said: “I did not know it was a bomb. I was going to melt it down into lead, so I’m glad I looked it up first. I spoke to my son, and he said to leave it and called the police at around 1.50pm. They arrived around half an hour later. “The officers looked at it and walked out. Me, my son, and my wife all had to leave the house. My neighbour had to leave as well. Then they called a bomb disposal team. My old girl asked them not to put up a cordon because she thought it was embarrassing. It’s not something that happens every day.” Neighnours Nyasha , who works in HR, first saw the police in the road when she was heading to the post office to drop off some packages. When she returned home around 40 minutes later, the officers were still there. Shortly after, the Army arrived. She said: “I thought it was strange and that it might be serious, as they were outside for all that time. But I heard people laughing and saw a kid eating snacks, so I thought it couldn’t be that bad. I spoke to Stanley, and he told me what had happened. “It’s such a crazy thing. I had to do a double-take and thought, ‘Did I hear that wrong?’ It didn’t sink in completely until the van with ‘bomb disposal’ written on it turned up. It’s a funny story, with Stanley finding out using AI, and us being clueless that we were living next to a bomb. “It was a bizarre experience and not what you expect on a Monday afternoon. We are all pretty relaxed about it now.” She added: “Some of us had hoped to see it being exploded in a safe place, but the soldiers told us they were taking it back to base.” Meanwhile, Stanley’s next-door neighbour, Marni Cockwell, was returning home after a day out when she saw him in his front garden on the phone. The mum of two said: “He told me he had found a bomb. I laughed in disbelief, but he said he had seriously got one in his house. “He said he found it in his house years ago and found out it was a bomb using AI. I couldn't believe it, but just kind of brushed it off. “We were all sitting, talking about how funny it would be if we had to be evacuated, and almost instantly we had a knock from the police and they asked us to leave. I’m sitting here with two children under two years old, so it's scarier in hindsight. The thought of living next to something so dangerous for so long without knowing… We are so lucky to have this be the news report and not that houses have blown up.” After removing the bomb from the house, the unit from 621 Squadron of 11th Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Search Regiment drove four minutes to a field near Bramblefield Lane and detonated it. One neighbour, who did not want to be named, said she heard two explosions. She said: “I was just sitting in the living room and I noticed a police van blocking me in. I thought that’s okay I’m not going anywhere. When I went to walk my dog, Molly - between 2pm and 3pm - I saw another police car turn up and then the bomb disposal van. “I went to walk up the footpath leading over the motorway, but it was cordoned off. One of the police officers told one of my neighbours that an unexploded bomb had been found, but it was nothing to worry about. “I heard two bangs around 5.30pm. The second one was really loud. I would imagine that was the bomb going off. It was quite exciting but also odd.”