NATCHEZ — So, an antique explosive ordnance walks into the sheriff’s office one day, when a man wants to get rid of it as quickly as possible.

It could be the lead up to a joke, but that was the situation that unfolded in the Adams County jail lobby Sunday.

A local resident had apparently located a Korean- or Vietnam-era practice mortar near some storage sheds in the northern part of the county over the weekend, Adams County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Ricky Stevens said.

Rather than keep around a potentially explosive device, the resident decided to turn it in to the sheriff’s office, and Stevens said he was contacted because of his previous experience with the U.S. Marines.

The device was kept in a safe in a closed area away from the ACSO’s main building, Stevens said.

“This was just a practice mortar round, and it has a place for a fuse,” Stevens said. “You drop it into the tube and it will propel the round out, but it won’t explode.”

The device shows evidence of having been fired many times before, Stevens said.

In the event residents find a similar ordnance around the county, they shouldn’t walk it in, he said.

“We suggest they don’t touch it,” he said. “Contact us, and we will come out and look at it, and if we determine it to be live we will contact Fort Polk to dispose it.”