{"id":22871,"date":"2026-07-31T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T02:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=22871"},"modified":"2026-07-31T07:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T02:30:00","slug":"tsa-finds-stolen-civil-war-era-cannonballs-in-a-passengers-suitcase-at-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=22871","title":{"rendered":"TSA finds stolen Civil War-era cannonballs in a passenger&#8217;s suitcase at airport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \"><span class=\"oyrPY qlwaB AGxeB  \">GULF SHORES, Ala. &#8212; <\/span>A TSA agent discovered a set of stolen Civil War-era cannonballs in a passenger&#8217;s suitcase during a routine security screening at an Alabama airport earlier this month, law enforcement officials said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/transportation-security-administration\">Transportation Security Administration<\/a> said 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cI had never seen anything quite this unique,\u201d TSA Officer Justin Dupree said in a statement from the agency. \u201cI\u2019ve seen inert grenades and training munitions but never an Indiana Jones-esque stolen artifact-type situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The cannonballs \u2014 the largest about the size of grapefruits and weighing about as much as a shot put ball \u2014 were inactive and didn\u2019t contain any explosive material or active components, the TSA said. Still, cannonballs are artillery munitions and considered prohibited items on planes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Police eventually determined the cannonballs were stolen from Fort Morgan, based on paint marking applied to the artifacts by fort staff, and that they dated to the American <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/5e6d77054bef489688519bd400714b65\">Civil War.<\/a> The historic Gulf Shores fort played a significant role in several military conflicts, including the Civil War. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The Baldwin County Sheriff\u2019s Office said Thursday that a juvenile stole the cannonballs from a storage area in the fort and then placed them in their grandmother\u2019s checked bag. The grandmother told officers she did not know they were stolen. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">Spokespersons for Fort Morgan didn&#8217;t respond to a email seeking comment. The sheriff&#8217;s office said the institution declined to press charges, and the artifacts were returned to the fort. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GULF SHORES, Ala. &#8212; A TSA agent discovered a set of stolen Civil War-era cannonballs in a passenger&#8217;s suitcase during a routine security screening at an Alabama airport earlier this month, law enforcement officials said. The Transportation Security Administration said in a statement Friday that the relics were discovered at Gulf Shores International Airport on&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/1a413af1-8608-4a33-9a20-bb0f8d1c6f53\/wirestory_55931076fb00f63ee7fb247ba0af28b8_16x9.jpg?w=1600","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}