Established in the wake of the 9/11 attacks with the goal of improving airport security, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has intercepted many odd items that travelers have either purposefully or accidentally tried to bring aboard a plane over the following two decades.
Some incidents that the government branch highlighted as part of its regular “what not to bring” updates included drugs sewn inside a hair scrunchie confiscated at Boise International Airport and 17 bullets “artfully concealed inside the otherwise clean disposable baby diaper” at LaGuardia International Airport in New York.
The latest what-was-that-traveler-thinking incident occurred when a woman was caught trying to smuggle two turtles wrapped inside her bra past security at Miami International Airport.
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‘Stop hiding animals in weird places': TSA to travelers
In an announcement of the incident made on July 24, the TSA said that one of the turtles died during the process, while the other was confiscated and handed over to the Florida Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“Friends, please — and we cannot emphasize this enough — stop hiding animals in weird places on your body and then trying to sneak them through airport security,” TSA wrote in a post shared on several social media platforms.
Related: TSA says ‘too many' people accidentally X-ray their pets when going through security
Undergarments are traditionally a common way that travelers with bad intentions try to smuggle different items, but this is almost always flagged by the advanced scans used today.
In the turtle case, the bulk inside the bra set off security alarms and the woman was detained for a full body search that uncovered the turtles.
In the photo shared by the TSA, the two turtles are seen wrapped tightly in plastic and bandages (this was how they were found nestled against the woman's breasts).
Image source: Shutterstock
‘Notice we said carried and not hidden underneath your clothing'
While airlines have various rules and restrictions about the size of pets that can be brought aboard, the TSA does not ban travelers from bringing dogs, turtles, or various other animals commonly kept as pets, so long as they are transported in an approved ventilated carrier from which they can be brought out when going through screening.
After several incidents of travelers putting pets through X-ray machines, the TSA issued a similar advisory telling travelers not to leave pets in the carrier in October 2023.
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“Too many travelers have been leaving their pets inside their travel bags and placing their pets through the X-ray unit,” New York's Buffalo-Niagara branch of the TSA wrote at the time.
But whether the traveler with the turtles thought she wasn't allowed to bring them or was transporting them that way just because she wanted to, the TSA starkly reminded everyone else to keep any and all pets in a carrier.
The size limit enforced by most U.S. airlines is that the animal fits inside a carrier of no more than 18 x 11 x 11 inches (46 x 28 x 24 centimeters).
“Notice we said ‘carried' and not ‘hidden underneath your clothing,'” the TSA emphasizes in its latest warning in response to the turtle incident.
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