6 strangest items people have smuggled onto flights
Airport security is more stringent than ever, but some travellers are still rolling the dice. Traveller has taken a look at six of the strangest things people have tried to smuggle on flights. These strange smuggling stories will have you scratching your head!
1. A tiger cub
In 2010, security at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport were stunned to find a heavily sedated, two-month-old tiger cub in the hand luggage of a passenger taking a flight to Iran. The passenger feigned ignorance, but it’s a tough one to give the benefit of the doubt to.
2. A Chihuahua
In a similar vein, security at New York’s LaGuardia Airport were stunned to find a sleeping Chihuahua inside a checked bag. You have to feel for the dog, and the absent-minded owner claimed the animal must’ve snuck into the luggage when she wasn’t looking.
3. A pet turtle
And that’s not all when it comes to animals! A Chinese traveller was caught trying to smuggle his pet turtle on a flight due to depart Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. The traveller had reportedly disguised his pet as an (admittedly unappetising) hamburger.
4. Tadpoles
One of the stranger smuggling stories comes from China's Guangzhou Airport, where a South Korean woman reached the bottle abandon point. Security forced her to drink or dispose of her water bottle, and she did the latter until they noticed something strange in her mouth. Apparently the woman had been smuggling tadpoles and was planning to smuggle them in her mouth as a last ditch effort to get through airport security.
5. Small mammals
New Delhi's Indira Gandhi Airport saw an interesting case when a passenger travelling from Bangkok to Dubai was arrested with a loris, a small, shy, wide-eyed nocturnal mammal native to India, hidden in his pants. You have to feel for the loris
6. Guns
We all know how American’s feel about their right to bear arms, and the Transport Security Administration's blog has countless cases of travellers trying to transport all kinds of deadly (sometimes loaded) weapons from sea to shining sea.
Have you ever been pulled up by airport security?
Let us know in the comments.
Related links:
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Why you must never throw out your boarding pass
5 strange sounds you hear during a flight explained