It is probably a pretty sad indictment of humanity that nothing on this list surprises me, but here we go with some of the strangest items removed from passengers at airport security.
For some people it is just too hard to leave a beloved pet at home.
A kitten
One woman flying into the UK from Crete hid a four-week-old kitten inside her handbag. Other passengers alerted Glasgow Airport security to a moving bag, and the flying feline was placed into quarantine.
The owner contested she had proper documentation for the cat’s travel, but these were in her hold luggage which was lost in transit.
A turtle
Airport security needed no help in Guangzhou, China, after they spotted odd movement coming from a young boy’s pants.
Luckily for the eagle-eyed officer, suspicions were confirmed to be correct as the child revealed a turtle he had stowed away for safe keeping.
Pigeons
An Australian man ramped it up in terms of technique, but was left disappointed as customs staff found two live pigeons, two eggs, seeds, and an aubergine he was smuggling in from the Middle East.
The pigeons were wrapped inside padded envelopes and hidden within tights, the eggs were inside a vitamin bottle, the seeds had been placed within a money belt, but how the aubergine traveled is not known.
It isn’t just pets that get bundled about. Some parents even extend that treatment to their own babies.
A baby
One woman in Papua New Guinea did not have legal papers for her two-month-old to leave the Philippines. Lucky for her he was still small enough to conveniently fit inside a holdall.
The baby was spotted on the X-ray scanner and removed from the bag sound asleep!
A human skull
One of the more eerie discoveries made was that of human skulls hidden in saucepans.
Destined for Amsterdam and Australia earlier this year, Indonesian officials located the packages and narrowed their purpose down to prized personal collection, or research.
A corpse
But the award for most audacious airplane cargo goes to an English mother and daughter who tried to take the corpse of their husband and father onto an EasyJet flight to Berlin.
Staff were concerned by 91-year-old Kurt ‘Willi’ Jarant being unresponsive. They were told by his family that he was just asleep.
The pair were arrested but no charges were brought against them.
Honourable mentions must also go to a live chicken, a throne made of decommissioned weapons, and an alarm clock that resembled a bomb. Bravo.
