This is a time capsule.
This is a time capsule. Screenshot via NBC

Construction workers in New York City were working on digging a foundation for a new building when they unearthed the most cartoonish-looking torpedo imaginable, reports NBC News. It looked as much like a bomb as anything could—long, finned, and probably dangerous.

But when the New York Police Department came to investigate, they determined that the torpedo was harmless: it was a time capsule filled with notes and photos from 1985.

John Argento, the co-owner of the 1980s club Danceteria, famous for its celebrity regulars and late-night parties, bought the missile shell from an Army Supply store on Canal Street for $200. It hung from the club’s ceiling and inspired two great parties, Argento says—one to fill the capsule with Polaroid photos and notes to people 10,000 years in the future, the other to bury the shell, in a gravel lot where Argento parked his car, New York reports.

The Danceteria crew never meant to dig the capsule back up, although about 10 years ago, Argento checked on it, only to find the place had been capped with concrete.

According to New York, the contents of the missile may have met the fate of so many well-intentioned time capsules—water may have seeped in and ruined the lot.