Bomb squad called after cannonball found in box of old war relics

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — A homeowner on Lake Griffin Road in Lake County said he recently inherited a box full of Civil War relics that contained a live cannonball with the name Gettysburg on it.

Afraid it could be dangerous, the man called the Lake County Sheriff's Office.

After the bomb squad rushed to the scene and examined the explosive, the cannonball, which had a wick sticking out of it, was loaded into a special bomb-proof metal container and hauled away to a remote and secret area where the Sheriff's Office X-rays and often destroys items.

"It's a container that is designed that if the device should explode in it, it redirects the blast upward instead of out, where people, homes or cars might be," said Sgt. Jim Vachon.

Vachon said it was a cannonball and the bomb squad figured even after 150 years it could have exploded.

After X-raying the cannonball, the Sheriff's Office said the explosives had already been removed, so there was no danger.

WFTV