O'Hare Screeners Find WWI Artillery Shells in Luggage

They were harmless, and teens weren't charged
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Apr 8, 2014 4:30 PM CDT
O'Hare Screeners Find WWI Artillery Shells in Lggage
This photo provided by the Transportation Security Administration shows two World War I artillery shells discovered by baggage screeners at O'Hare.   (Uncredited)

It is not your run-of-the-mill red flag from airport security: Baggage screeners at Chicago's O'Hare airport discovered two World War I artillery shells in checked luggage that arrived on a flight from London. The Transportation Security Administration says the bags belonged to a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old who were returning from a school field trip to Europe. A bomb-disposal crew determined that the shells were inert and that no one was ever in danger.

The teens said they obtained the shells at a French World War I artillery range, though it wasn't clear how. TSA explosives experts believe they are French 75 mm shells. They were seized yesterday evening while the teens were transferring to a flight to Seattle. The teens were questioned, then allowed to travel onward—without their shells, notes the Chicago Sun-Times. They weren't charged. (More O'Hare International Airport stories.)

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