MORGAN COUNTY, Ala. – A father/son fishing trip led to a surprising discovery Sunday.

David Rook and his dad, Donnie Rook, went magnet fishing off a bridge in Decatur for Father’s Day. While fishing, Allen said his dad pulled up not one, but two rusted artillery shells.

“Well I’ve never pulled up nothing like that,” said David. “My biggest find was a fishing pole so I wasn’t expecting it.”

He said within a few minutes, Donnie pulled up “what looked like to be an artillery round. We set it off to the side. Well, as soon as he dropped the magnet in again, he pulled up another round.”

As soon as a Decatur police officer drove by, Rook said he and his father flagged him down.

“Once he seen what they were, he asked us to gently set them down in the grass and step away from the area,” said David. “He called for backup and that’s when kinda everything just kinda unfolded. They called in the bomb squad.”

A member of the Huntsville Bomb Squad was called to the scene because the shells were active, according to Rook.

“So our bomb technicians were contacted,” said Lt. Michael Johnson with the Huntsville Police Department. “They were immediately identifiable as military munitions or ordinances which are manufactured for military use. In a case like this, that’s not something that our bomb technicians or civilian law enforcement can deal with, that’s something the military has to deal with.”

Decatur authorities said military from Fort Campbell, Kentucky assisted in the removal of the rounds.

“It’s not the day that we expected to have but it’s a Father’s Day that not a lot of people could beat to be honest,” said David.

He added that many people have been calling them heroes, but he wants to make it clear that the real heroes are the law enforcement that helped them out by blocking off traffic, and disposing of the artillery shells properly.