Civil War Tchotchke on Man's Desk Was a Live Bomb

Turns out that a souvenir that sat on Steve Martin's desk for years wasn't just a conversation starter—it was a Civil War bomb that still worked. The Texas man says visitors constantly picked up and handled the 20-pound shell, which his son had found while fishing along the Guadalupe River and brought home, per Smithsonian and KENS. Martin assumed it was a harmless replica, until a truck driver with military experience whom he was chatting with suggested otherwise.

Martin called the Atascosa County Sheriff's Office, which brought in an Air Force explosive ordnance team. Specialists confirmed it was a live Parrott round, a type of artillery shell used by Union forces, and detonated it safely at Camp Bullis, more than 50 miles away. Officials say long-dormant munitions from past wars continue to turn up in homes and on former battlefields across the US and Europe, warning that such relics can be just as hazardous now as when they were made. "I thought it was really some sort of dummy," Martin tells KENS. "Now I'm thinking this thing is making a dummy out of me."