Southfield, Michigan - Three Michigan teens led by unemployed lube technician Denny "Superman" Russell have unwittingly unearthed what experts are calling "a pre-IP phone system."

Russell, 20, and his "crew" comprised of Taco Bell night shift cashier Cooper Salter, 22, and sign-waver Curtis Pippin, 35, set events in motion Tuesday after blowing up a sofa in a suburban Detroit vacant lot.

"My friend Curtis, he made us a bomb," explained Russell. "We saw that sofa and figured we'd blow it up."

According to eyewitnesses -- the bomb, a crude concoction of fertilizer and gasoline, blew a 45 foot hole in the earth, incinerating Russell's car and an adjacent office park. "I learned how on the world wide internet - it seemed like no big deal," Pippin said of his homemade bomb. "We was lucky to survive."

In the aftermath of the firestorm, police spotted a peculiar object protruding from the smoking crater at ground zero. "I thought it might be a T-Rex bone," noted veteran officer Ben Zenetti, "so I called over to the University."

What Professor Ian Hadley discovered upon his arrival would prove to be an archaeological wonder. There, 22 feet down in the limestone-rich sediment, stood a perfectly preserved pre-IP phone system or "PBX" as they were commonly known.

"What we have here is the missing link to our barbaric, technological past," stated Hadley. "Heretofore it shall be called 'Hadley's artifact.'"

Telecom historian, Gloria Sanchez-Chow, elaborates: "The sheer size of this thing is mind boggling. It's quite evident to us that it required a completely separate network to function. Can you imagine the administrative and maintenance costs?"

According to Sanchez-Chow, Hadley's artifact will be sent to the Smithsonian as soon as a consortium of American, German and Japanese scientists complete important research aimed at understanding how our ancestors communicated.

As for Russell, he's enjoying the international acclaim while awaiting trial. "Some girl in England proposed to me," laughs Russell. "Is England the one with the windmills?"

Ken Apperson reporting