Oh, it happens. There's a good deal of unexploded ordnance still lying around places like France, left over from a century's worth of wars. Every so often you'll hear about some poor French farmer who accidentally finds one by hitting it with a plow or some such, and manages to blow himself straight to the moon.
Not too many live shells from the Civil War era: Those had "open" fuses paths that couldn't keep the internal powder well sealed. (The blast from the prelling charge ignited the explosive powder.)
2005 - 110 years? Odd time for an artillary shell to reach a civilian's hands.