Security officers at Alabama's Gulf Shores International Airport in the U.S. were shocked to discover a passenger's checked bag containing what officials described as a stolen historic relic — five Civil War-era cannonballs wrapped in paper towels.
The Transportation Security Administrationsaid in a statement Friday that the relics were discovered at Gulf Shores International Airport on July 18 after the agent observed what appeared to be a large, opaque item inside a suitcase during an X-ray screening. When he opened the luggage, he found five small cannonballs wrapped in paper towels and notified a supervisor.
"I had never seen anything quite this unique," TSA Officer Justin Dupree said in a statement from the agency. "I've seen inert grenades and training munitions but never an Indiana Jones-esque stolen artifact-type situation."
A stolen Civil War-era cannonball discovered by TSA officers in a checked bag at the Gulf Shores International Airport in Gulf Shores, U.S. Photo via AP
The cannonballs — the largest about the size of grapefruits and weighing about as much as a shot put ball — were inactive and didn't contain any explosive material or active components, the TSA said. Still, cannonballs are artillery munitions and considered prohibited items on planes.
