Employees got a surprise last weekend when a backpack full of bones turned up at the Dawson County waste transfer station.

"We got a call ... and came down to collect the bones," said Dawson County Sheriff Billy Carlisle. "We sent them to the [Georgia Bureau of Investigation] crime lab to test them to see what kind they are."

According to Carlisle, the discovery was made Friday morning.

"Investigators have made contact with the people that threw the bones in the trash," he said. "After talking with them, we don't feel like there's going to be any worry with them."

According to Carlisle, the owners of the backpack said they found the bones on an island at Lake Allatoona, which is in nearby Cherokee County.

"They said they found the skeleton of an old horse there and said they picked it up years ago and took them home for some reason," Carlisle said. "They finally just threw them all away."

Despite that explanation, the lab is still testing the bones.

"The crime lab may come back and say ‘Hey, this is something you need to be concerned about,'" Carlisle said. "We don't know that yet, but we're still keeping an eye on it."