From a seal's head to human eyeballs, the top 10 bizarre items seized by airport customs revealed
By CAROL DRIVER
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While for most passengers, trying to smuggle more than a 100ml of moisturiser in hand luggage on board a plane brings them out in a cold sweat, other travellers are more, well, brazen.
From exotic animals and human remains, to dangerous machinery and potential weapons, the range of bizarre items seized by airport customs raises more than eyebrows.
A new interactive app called Busted! Caught By Customs from travel company hotelcontractbeds.co.uk reveals the oddest things passengers attempt to sneak into other countries.
Here, we reveal the top 10...
Anything to declare? A new app reveals the strangest things people have tried to smuggle through customs
1. A human skeleton... Two Italian women shocked staff at Munich airport in Germany in 2008 when they discovered a human skeleton in their luggage during a routine x-ray scan during a stopover on their journey from Sao Paulo to Naples. When questioned, the women produced a valid death certificate confirming the remains were those of a family member who died in Brazil 11 years earlier, and they were allowed to proceed on the flight with the human remains.
2. 200 tarantulas... Dutch custom officials at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport confiscated 200 poisonous tarantulas hidden in a couple’s suitcase in 2012. The live spiders were found amongst other assorted insects including grasshoppers and millipedes, which were handed over to Dutch animal welfare authorities.
3. Human eyeballs... 10 human eyeballs were found in a passenger’s luggage, floating in a jam-jar and seized by officials at Stansted Airport in 2007. Not a lot is known about why someone was walking around with five pairs of eyeballs, or what happened to them once they were confiscated.
Creepy crawlies: Customs officers found poisonous tarantulas at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport
Egyptian delicacy: 420 pounds of cows' brains were seized at Cairo's International Airport in 2012
4. Seal's head... In 2004, a man was stopped by Boston's Logan International Airport security when it was discovered he had the severed head of a seal in his hand luggage. A biology professor, the man claimed he had come across the dead animal and wanted to use its head for educational purposes. Unfortunately for him, federal wildlife laws make it illegal to remove dead animal parts, and he was forced to leave the head behind.
5. Tiger cub... Officials discovered a sedated two-month-old tiger cub in a suitcase full of stuffed animal toys when it went through an X-ray scan at Bangkok International Airport in Thailand in 2010. The 31-year-old woman who was attempting to smuggle the young cub had hoped to fetch up to £2,000 on the Iranian black market. The woman was arrested and the tiger was sent to a wildlife conservation.
Saved: This two-month-old tiger cub was found in a suitcase at Bangkok International Airport in 2010
Busted: This giant squash weighing 4st was seized by officials at Birmingham Airport
6. Cows' brains... In 2012, 420 pounds of cows' brains were confiscated at Cairo’s International Airport from three men who planned to sell them to Egyptian restaurants (where cow brains are considered a delicacy). A pound of raw cow brains bought in Sudan for less than a dollar can be resold in Egypt for six times as much, airport officials said. Officials claimed the cow brains were destroyed after they had been confiscated.
7. Miniature toy gun... London Heathrow security confiscated a miniature toy gun from a Toy Story Woody doll earlier this year. Officials refused to comment on the incident, saying: ‘We do not comment on specific incidents or details of our security regime.’ One Reddit user commented on the story: ‘I’m just imagining what it would be like if he tried to hijack an airplane with that small gun. People squinting looking at his hand.'
Medical research?: A biology professor attempted to smuggle a severed head of a seal into Boston
8. Massive squash... Last week, Customs officers at Birmingham Airport seized a giant squash from a passenger who was trying to smuggle it into Britain from Asia. The 4ft-long vegetable, which weighed in more than at 4st, was found with 175lb (79kg) of fish and 94,000 cigarettes from Bangladesh. A spokesman for Solihull Council said: 'It is a bit of a rare find, as you can imagine we do get cigarettes a lot, but not a squash, especially not one of this size.'
9. Stuffed armadillo... Taxidermy is always controversial, but in September 2004 Sydney officials seized a stuffed Texan-styled armadillo completed with armadillo-sized hat and holsters. Intended as a gift, the armadillo breached strict Australian laws on wildlife importation, although they joked in a statement: ‘Bad taste should have been enough of a reason not to bring [it] into the county.’
10. Power chainsaw... In 2012, someone tried to bring a fully gassed-up power chainsaw through a checkpoint in New York’s Elmira Corning Regional Airport. Surprisingly, he was allowed to board the flight with the chainsaw, he just needed to remove the fuel, which was confiscated by the Transportation Security Administration.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2584238/The-10-bizarre-items-seized-airport-customs-revealed.html#ixzz2wQyAwOa2
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