Texas man used Civil War relic as paperweight; later found it was a live explosive

The Civil War-era shell sat on a Texas man's desk for years as a conversation piece. (Atascosa County Sheriff's Office) A Texas man kept a Civil War-era artillery shell on his desk for years, believing it was nothing more than a harmless dummy round. The object had become a conversation piece in his home, with visitors regularly picking it up and examining it. That changed after a man with military experience saw the relic and warned that it could still be live. The owner then contacted the Atascosa County Sheriff's Office, which brought in an explosive ordnance disposal team from Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. Experts examined the roughly 20-pound object and identified it as a live Parrott round. It was later transported to an explosives range at Camp Bullis, where specialists safely destroyed it.How a Texas man turned a Civil War relic into a paperweightThe man, identified as Steve Martin, had acquired the object from his son, who had found it while fishing. Martin believed it was a dummy projectile and eventually began using it as a paperweight at his home in Atascosa County. For years, the unusual object attracted the attention of visitors, who would pick it up and look at it...