WASHINGTON — Security screeners found something troubling at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport on Monday morning — a military missile launcher.

The Transportation Security Administration says its officers found it in a traveler’s checked baggage during routine screening. They notified the airport police who were able to track down the bag’s owner and detain him for questioning.

TSA said the man, from Jacksonville, Texas, told the police that he was traveling home from U.S. military duty in Kuwait where he picked up the missile launcher and wanted to keep it as a souvenir.

“Fortunately the item was not a live device,” the TSA said in a statement. It was confiscated and turned over to the Maryland fire marshal for disposal.

The man was released and allowed to resume his journey home.

Military weapons are not allowed in either checked or carry-on baggage. Civilian firearms, such as hunting rifles, are prohibited in carry-on bags but are allowed in checked bags if they are unloaded and locked in a hard-sided container.