Bradley Castor stepped outside his home Tuesday, with one goal in mind.

"I was demolishing the retaining wall that was coming up very hard,” said Castor.

But that ended quickly when he came across the unexpected.

"I thought it was a can,” said Castor. “Then I realized it was an ordnance round."

It was a 3-to-5 inch shrapnel device to be exact.

Fort Drum officials say Castor dug up this artillery shell that was made around WWI. As an army vet himself, the next step came naturally.

"I knew not to play with it,” Castor said. “When something like that is put into sunlight in that heat, that can change everything. I eliminated that situation and put it in the shade."

Then the Watertown police and Fort Drum's Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit came to the scene.

"We're going to treat these items as if they are live and dangerous because we don't want a catastrophe to happen,” said Joseph Donoghue, a Watertown Police Department detective lieutenant

Officials made residents evacuate Clay Street and they blocked off traffic.

The EOD unit brought the shell back to the fort's ranges to get rid of it.

"Sometimes they are extremely dangerous, other times, they're like this,” said Castor. “It wasn't even loaded with explosives."

Castor says he's happy everyone is safe, but he's not too worried if it happens again.

"Whatever's going to happen is going to happen, you can't stop fate," said Castor.

However this time, he hopes to dig up a better surprise.

"Gold,” Castor said. “My money pit house is always wanting more money."

This isn't the first time neighbors found an ordnance. Back in 1922, there was an explosion where children unfortunately died. There have been more recent incidents, but no one was hurt.

Watertown Police are telling neighbors who come across an ordnance, leave it alone and give them a call.