A routine airport security screening in Alabama took an unexpected turn earlier this month when TSA officers discovered five stolen Civil War-era cannonballs hidden inside a passenger's suitcase.
The unusual find was made July 18 at Gulf Shores International Airport after a Transportation Security Administration officer spotted a large, dense object during an X-ray screening, officials said Friday.
When the suitcase was opened, officers found five cannonballs wrapped individually in paper towels.
"I had never seen anything quite this unique," TSA Officer Justin Dupree said in a statement. "I've seen inert grenades and training munitions but never an Indiana Jones-esque stolen artifact-type situation."
Dupree said his initial concern was that the objects could be live explosives.
"My first thought was, 'I couldn't see a fuse and need to get some help quick,'" he said. "I couldn't see the entire item but was scared I might have been holding a live explosive."
Authorities later determined the cannonballs were inert and contained no explosive material. Still, artillery munitions are prohibited in both carry-on and checked baggage. Airport director Jesse Fosnaugh told The New York Times the cannonballs had been "pitted out," meaning the explosive material had long been removed.
The passenger told authorities she had bought the cannonballs at a roadside stand before boarding a flight to Oklahoma City. Investigators later determined the artifacts had actually been stolen from nearby Fort Morgan.
According to the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office, a juvenile secretly placed the cannonballs in the woman's suitcase after taking them from a storage area at the historic fort. The grandmother told deputies she had no idea the relics were stolen.
The cannonballs were identified by paint markings applied by Fort Morgan staff. The artifacts date to the Civil War, and the fort itself served military roles during the Civil War, World War I and World War II.
Officials naming the suspect as a “juvenile” sparked a wave of viral posts from fans of the rapper Juvenile, who jokingly implicated him in the unusual theft.
Fort Morgan declined to pursue charges against the juvenile, and the cannonballs have since been returned.
"It's a unique story to tell, and no one got hurt," Fosnaugh said.
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