FAIRHOPE, Alabama --- An afternoon walk with his dog netted an unexpected find for a Fairhope resident this afternoon.

"My dog got tangled up in some small trees across the street," said Chad Holland as he began to explain the chain of events.

As the 24-year-old worked to release the animal, he noticed something partially buried in the ground.

"I scraped the dirt around it and carried it across to show my mother. The two live in a rent house on Short Street across the paved road from the wooded lot.

"He tripped a couple of times crossing the street," Shawn Holland, his mother said.

Their neighbor, Kathy Chapman, said that another piece of ordnance was found that morning in another area of that lot by the property owner's gardener.

"Chad didn't know at the time that another shell had been found," his mother added.

Shawn Holland said the shell found in the morning looked like an expended shell because "it was hollow and didn't have a tip."

They were unsure if the ordnance Chad found was a live round because it retained its tip and wasn't hollow.

They contacted the Fairhope Police Department and as this story was filed, the FPD was seeking the appropriate officials to come and examine the find.

Shawn Holland said she believes the two shells, which she thinks are from the Civil War era, are fairly recent discards by someone who had been living in the area who tossed them aside as they prepared to move elsewhere.

"The lot is frequently used as a dumping site," she said. "Just look at those tires at the edge of the woods. That's right where Chad found the shell."