In my post office days (mid 1970s) parcels from Nor'n Ireland all came in through Southampton. We had an "Explosives Sniffer" ~ a machine that could detect the presence of certain chemicals through which all such parcels were passed. On one occasion the machine bleeped loudly, automatic steel shutters slammed down and a parcel was isolated. The bomb squad (being in Southampton this was actually provided by the Royal Navy from Portsmouth) was summoned. On arrival a man dressed in protective kit gingerly lifted the parcel out of isolation and carried it into the car park. Obviously everyone had been cleared from the area. The parcel was addressed to Army Married Quarters near Salisbury. The Navy decided to take no chances and carried out a "controlled explosion". This consisted of a remote control device ie a robot with a shotgun mounted on it. At the given signal from the officer a matelot pressed the button and the shotgun fired into the parcel. Nothing happened but to be safe they did it again.
I should have loved to have been there when the squaddy, too lazy to carry all his kit home and having had the brain wave of sending it through the post tried to explain to his Quartermaster why the Royal Navy had peppered his uniforms (which of course carried traces of explosive from the ammo he had carried for three months) with lead shot.
The postscript to this tale is that, over a cup of tea with the Navy Lads after the event I casually mentioned to the Sub Lieutenant in charge that his brave matelot who had carried the parcel out of the office and placed it in the car park had actually sited it over the underground petrol tanks that held the 12000 gallons of fuel for our fleet of vans. He went very very white.
