DEVON auctioneer David Force got a shock when helping a couple pack up some items to go for sale at an auction house near Okehampton.

David, from Dawlish, unearthed what has turned out to be two First World War shell detonator fuses.

He was helping a couple with a house clearance in Alphington, Exeter when he managed to prize open a drawer which had not been opened for at least 40 years.

He explained: “I didn’t recognise them immediately and tried to unscrew them. 

“But I noticed there were military signs on them so I took them and other items back to the sale room.

“We then thought it best to check what they were and spoke to an ex-military friend who recognised them and told us not to drop them.”

With his colleague Ann Thorp, auctioneer at Dartmoor Auctions near Okehampton, they alerted the police and bomb disposal unit. 

The Royal Navy bomb experts took away the fuses for safe disposal. 

David joked: “I knew I shouldn’t have juggled with them.”