Weird Animals That Insane Plane Passengers Actually Tried To Take Onboard Their Flights
Smugglers are always trying to pull the wool over the eyes of airport security. And a lot of them try everything in their power to sneak in a bunch of wild and exotic animals to trade for money. Sadly, these animals often become fodder for research, food, clothing and even medicine. But not everyone’s a smuggler who’s trying to take a weird animal on a plane. Because on rare occasions, you someone actually needs to take an animal with them on their flight for emotional support. Either way, these creatures are often at risk. But so are the unsuspecting passengers. So here are the craziest animal finds at airport security.
A Woman Was Denied Emotional Support From Peacock
A photographer and performance artist named Ventiko, who is based off of New York City, bought an extra ticket for Dexter, her emotional support peacock. But United Airlines told her she couldn’t bring the peacock aboard the flight intended to take her from New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport to LA because it didn’t meet the size and weight guidelines.
Man Tries Smuggling Slippery Eels On A Plane
European glass eels are a delicacy in Hong Kong, which is why a man in his 60s was attempting to illegally smuggle 600,000 of them under a bunch of chilled fish before he was stopped at the Heathrow Airport. Grant Miller, of the national Border Force CITES at Heathrow stated: “Due to their conservation status, it was important to repatriate them alive and well.” The illegal eels are thought to be worth £1.2 million.
Emotional Support Pig Gets The Boot
A US Airways passenger, who was not identified, brought a pig aboard her flight. But the pig didn’t offer much emotional support. In fact, it lashed out when the woman tied it to the armrest. According to passenger Robert Phelps, the pig had become disruptive and a flight attendant asked the woman to move to the front, but she eventually got off the plane.
Birds Get Socked And Confiscated
Xia Jian Pan had strapped two endangered birds wrapped in socks to her body and then casually walked through the Tom Bradley International Terminal checkpoint. One of the birds was taped to the woman’s chest and the other to her leg. US Fish and Wildlife officers apprehended the woman on suspicion of smuggling and exporting the birds out of the US.
Tourist Caught Smuggling Seahorses
In some countries, seahorses are the main ingredient in soups, but they’ve been exploited for medicinal purposes as well. Still, Customs officers at Malaga airport in Spain were stunned to find a bunch of seahorses stashed inside two plastic bags hidden in his bags. The Chinese national who packed them told authorities that he was bringing them along so he could consume them. Sadly, none of the seahorses were alive.
Man Gives Turtle A KFC Makeover
A man identified only as Li, was at China’s Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport when airport security noticed he had disguised a turtle as a KFC Burger. Fortunately, the X-ray scanner showed something odd sticking out of the burger wrapper, and when questioned, Li explained that he did it because he didn’t want to be apart from his pet turtle. That’s…kinda cute?
Woman Smuggles Live Snakes In Her Bra
One of the craziest animal finds at airport security involved an unidentified 42-year-old woman who was caught trying to smuggle 65 baby grass snakes inside her bra at Stockholm, Sweden’s airport. They also found six lizards under her blouse too. According to Snope, the national news agency TT, claimed that she wanted to create a reptile farm. Okaaay?
Is That A Gecko In Your Underwear?
A German man named Hans Kurt Kubus spent 14 weeks in jail in New Zealand and was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine before being deported back to Germany. His crime? He tried smuggling over 40 geckos and skinks inside a special hand sewn pocket in his underwear through the Christchurch International Airport. Mike Bodie, who’s the Department of Conservation prosecutor stated tha this is: “The most serious case of its kind detected in New Zealand for a decade or more.”
Emotional Support Duck Takes To The Skies
“Daniel Turducken Stinkerbutt” the duck had been Carla Fitzgerald’s emotional support after she was struck by a driver who was busy texting back in 2013. She suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and needed the certified duck wherever she went, including a flight from Charlotte to Asheville, in North Carolina. But when another passenger named Mark Essig posted a photo of the duck on the internet, Daniel the duck became a hit.
Baby Tiger Was No Stuffed Toy
A woman named Piyawan Palasarn from Thailand denied that the luggage carrying a baby tiger cub belonged to her. But authorities found the 3-month old cub drugged and hidden within toy tigers at Bangkok’s international airport. The cub was sent to a wildlife conservation center in Bangkok, which claimed that the creature was dehydrated and seemingly exhausted.
Pregnant With A Monkey
Gypsy Lawson from Spokane, Washington appeared to be an expectant mom, but what she really had under her shirt was a sedated rhesus monkey, which she managed to smuggle into Los Angeles. But when she blabbed about it to someone at a clothing store, the jig was up and she was convicted of smuggling goods from Thailand to the US.
Pigeon Hole Smuggling
In more bizarro world news, a 23-year-old Australian man was caught by customs at Melbourne airport after he arrived from a flight that took off in Dubai. The unidentified man was said to have been wearing tights under his pants and a pigeon was wrapped around each leg inside padded envelopes. Officials also found plant seeds inside his money belt and eggplant samples in his luggage.
Monkeys Were Up This Man’s Jumper
Roberto Zavaleta Sol Cabrera stuffed 18 titi monkeys into some socks and hid them in a girdle that was placed around his waist. His intention was to smuggle them through customs at Mexico City International Airport. But he was acting nervous, which alerted officials. Sadly, two of the monkeys didn’t survive.
Smuggling Some Turtle Power
Carol Wormley and her partner Michael Mates, who’s a herpetologist, attempted to smuggle seven tortoises from the Greek Island of Corfu into the UK. The tortoises were placed in bags and suitcases. One was even taped to keep it from moving too much, according to Prosecutor Angela Hughes. Mates was ordered to work 150 hours without pay, while Wormley was ordered to work 80 hours without pay.
Packing Hummingbirds In His Pants
An unidentified Dutch traveler had smuggled over a dozen live hummingbirds inside a sewn pouch inside his underwear. The birds were kept wrapped in cloth and tape to keep them from escaping their sweaty accommodations. Like most smugglers under this predicament, the man was acting funny, and when authorities at the Rochambeau airport in Cayenne, French Guiana examined further, they found the birds.
Someone Tried To Smuggle 431 Reptiles
A series of Gharials, which are a form of crocodile indigenous to India, as well as hundreds of Indian star and roofed tortoises were discovered in an unclaimed bag belonging to an Indian traveler who was arriving from Bangladesh. Authorities at the Bangkok airport claimed that there was a total of 431 rare creatures, many of whom are banned from international trafficking.
Catching Some Star Tortoises
On September 15, 2003, an unnamed Indian citizen was found to be trying to smuggle 499 star tortoises, which are on the endangered species list. The tortoises were inside a hand luggage at Singapore’s Changi Airport. The cost of these tortoises was estimated at a value of 13,000 to 17,000 USD.
These Socks Are For The Birds
Smuggling exotic animals is common in Southern California. Just ask Sony Dong, who had tried to walk out of the Los Angeles International Airport in California wearing these socks, which had fourteen songbirds strapped to his legs. Dong was detained and charged on May 5, 2009, after it became clear that there was more to his ensemble than met the eye.
Python Smugglers Foiled
On March 26, 2011, a total of 40 sedated snakes, including this beautiful yellow and green python was discovered inside the bags of two Kuwaiti men, who were hoping to smuggle the slithery creatures aboard a flight intended for Dubai. But Indonesian customs stopped them at Jakarta’s Sukarno-Hatta airport. The unnamed suspects claimed they planned to sell the snakes to collectors in the UAE.
Flipping Over Tropical Fish
A woman from Rosanna, in Victoria, Australia arrived at the Melbourne airport from Singapore, and she didn’t come alone. The unidentified woman had smuggled 51 live tropical fish hidden underneath her skirt. What she wore was a specialized apron that held 15 plastic bags filled with water. When authorities heard flipping noises coming from her waist area, they decided to investigate.
Tarantulas Were Totally Chill
Some of the craziest animal finds at airport security can also be totally creepy. An unidentified man was apprehended by customs officials at Zurich Airport in Switzerland when they discovered Mexican red kneed tarantulas hidden in six boxes inside a suitcase. The man had traveled from the Dominican Republic, but Zurich officials found that the spiders had all passed away after experiencing cold temperatures during the flight to Switzerland.
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