A teddy bear found by a North Carolina deliveryman held a not so cuddly secret inside.

Anthony Cannon, a newspaper deliveryman for The Shelby Star, said he spotted a teddy bear early Thursday morning as he was completing his route near Lattimore, a small town 50 miles west of Charlotte. The 42-year-old returned later in the morning to pick up the bear, reports the AP.

"I thought it was real unusual to be sitting in the middle of the road," Cannon said. "It was pitch-black out there. When I picked the bear up, some sort of container fell out."

Cannon abandoned the bear on the street. But he decided to take the cylindrical container, putting it in his car as he drove 20 minutes back to his cousin's home in Shelby. Once at the house, he took a closer look at the item, which he described as a tiny bottle filled with liquid that was covered with tape and had wires sticking out.

Worried that the device he was holding wasn't safe, Cannon placed it on his cousin's porch and called 911. When authorities arrived -- including a bomb squad -- it was determined that the device was an IED and Cannon and his family were cleared out of the home, reports local station WSOC-TV. Officials successfully deactivated the bomb and federal investigators are now inspecting the device and attempting to uncover clues to figure out who fabricated it.