TSA officers at Gulf Shores International Airport in Alabama encountered an alarming discovery on July 18 when they found five Civil War-era cannonballs in a passenger's checked bag.
Lead TSA officer Justin Dupree noticed unusual shapes on the X-ray screen, initially mistaking them for medicine balls. The items, described as varying in size up to grapefruit-sized, were wrapped in paper towels. Dupree's concern grew as he could not immediately determine if they were live explosives, prompting him to alert his supervisor, Richard Cash.
"My first thought was, ‘I couldn’t see a fuse and need to get some help quick,’" Dupree stated, according to a TSA report. "I couldn’t see the entire item but was scared I might have been holding a live explosive."
Supervisory TSA Officer Richard Cash agreed that the cannonballs posed a potential danger. The discovery led to the airport alerting regional TSA explosives specialists, local police, and deputies from the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office. Cash described the incident as his first encounter with a potentially live explosive in his career.
Due to the inability to immediately confirm if the artifacts were inert, they were classified as prohibited artillery munitions and deemed a potential danger to the aircraft. The TSA prohibits weapons of any kind, including replicas, from being brought to the airport.
Investigators later determined the cannonballs had been stolen from Fort Morgan, a historic Civil War fort located on Alabama's coast. The Baldwin County Sheriff's Office confirmed that a juvenile had taken the artifacts from a storage area at the fort. The cannonballs were reportedly being transported in the juvenile's grandmother's checked luggage.
Personnel from Fort Morgan identified the items as their property due to distinctive paint markings. The director of Fort Morgan chose not to press charges, and the sheriff's office took no further action. TSA Alabama Federal Security Director Tara Corse commended the officers for their vigilance and emphasized the importance of avoiding the transport of potentially dangerous items through airports, regardless of their condition.