US /

Copied

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. (Read more O'Hare International Airport stories.)