That’s no pistol in his pocket!
A red-eared slider. Image by Nightryder84, Creative Commons
Here’s your quirky “just imagine” item for the week: Canadian man caught with 51 live turtles in his pants at U.S. border.
From the Canadian Press:
The U.S. federal court documents say officers with the Canada Border Services Agency intercepted Kai Xu as he attempted to cross into Windsor, Ont., from Detroit last month.
“During the secondary inspection, Xu was found to have 51 live turtles tapped (sic) to his person,” Kenneth Adams, a special agent with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, stated in an affidavit outlining the criminal complaint.
“Specifically, Xu had 41 turtles tapped (sic) to his legs and 10 hidden between his legs.”
Canadian authorities seized the turtles, which included North American varieties such as eastern box turtles, red-eared sliders and diamondback terrapins — some of which sell for $800 each — and turned them over to American officials.
Ask anyone who ever had a pet turtle, or picked one up in the wilderness. It is amazing how strong they are, how hard they can push with their little, clawed legs.
The full story involves two alleged cases of reptile smuggling and even includes an actual stake out by intrepid U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents.
The size of the turtles was not specified.
A newly hatched diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) rescued from a runway at John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport, New York. USDA photo by Jenny Mastanuono
I’m going to presume none were snapping turtles.
But the story reminds me of my youth back in the 50’s when my grandmother rented a motel on the Detroit River in Amherst, Ontario.
On vacation there, I would go out on the dock across the road from the motel where I did some swimming and fishing. One day I noticed this turtle come up to the surface, stay there for awhile, then go back underwater. I further noticed there was a time pattern to his surfacing. When I thought the turtle would resurface in a few seconds, I dove in, looked up and saw the turtle had surfaced, whereupon I reached up, grabbed and captured him.
When it was time to go home to Detroit, I declared at the border that I had a turtle I caught by diving in the water to catch him. No problem back in those days. I don’t recall how long I kept him before returning him to the river on the Detroit side.