CLAYBANKS TOWNSHIP, Mich. — When it comes to the sandy shores of Lake Michigan, seashells are common. Artillery shells? A bit less so.
Through magnet fishing, though, a family managed to find the latter — a crusty, rusty, potentially dangerous military weapon — on their Oceana County property.
"We pulled it up and my mom was like, 'This looks like a bomb,'" said Ehren Coffey, a 13-year-old who, along with his brother and mother, lugged the heavy shell to shore after discovering it in shoulder-high water.
"I mean, it was a little scary, but I wasn't too scared," Coffey said.
The family called a non-emergency dispatch line and, soon enough, a Michigan State Police bomb squad was on the scene.
They also called dad, who was up at the house and not down by beach.
"He was like, 'Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Don't touch it. Don't touch it,'" Coffey said.
When the bomb squad determined the artillery shell was not a live round, they removed it from the private beach, hauling it up several, steep flights of stairs.
"We looked on the security cameras and we heard them saying, 'This is not the day to be doing this. This is not the day to be doing this,'" Coffey said.
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The find — certainly less common than a piece of driftwood or a Petoskey stone — is not so out of the ordinary for this section of Oceana County shoreline, littered with parts and pieces from Camp Claybanks, a former U.S. Army training base.
In fact, less than a month ago, a pair of anti-aircraft ordinances were uncovered in a culvert beneath a nearby neighbor's driveway.
On the Coffey family's property, an old, decrepit military bunker is buried in their front yard.
"I heard they sent out drones over the water so the army could test some of their missiles," Coffey said. "It'd be nice to try and find one of those."
As the 13-year-old searches for anything else that's old, rusty, and willing to stick to its magnet, there's a new rule, too.
"From now on, we've been wearing water shoes in Lake Michigan," he said.
WATCH: 'Looks like a bomb': Family finds artillery shell in Lake Michigan while magnet fishing
