It’s unbelievable what travellers pack

IT COULD have been a laundry list of unusual discoveries better meant for CSI Miami or CSI New York.
Some travellers do not just pack clothes, gifts and other essentials, as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), whose job it is to screen baggage at checkpoints, often finds out.
Among the amazing finds:
> A kitchen sink.
> Tarantula spiders, which “somehow crawled in and multiplied by the time an officer opened the bag”.
> Hermit crabs (discovered in San Antonio, Texas; a family wanted to take some home from the Gulf of Mexico).
> Fully tanked-up chainsaws and outboard boat engines (a favourite in Florida after the hurricanes).
> A handmade Mexican ceramic sink (purchased in the United States by Mexican nationals on vacation who said it was cheaper than at home).
> Road flares.
And how about 10 human eyeballs floating in liquid detected by airport scanners in Chicago last year? It turned out they were for legitimate medical use.
Weapons of all sorts have been found, too. Just to name a few: a 6ft-long African spear, a cane with a sword built in, and a belt with knives attached.
Several months ago, at Kennedy International Airport in New York, three men were caught for smuggling songbirds such as Chinese Hwamei and Mongolian Lark into the country.
“Also, believe it or not, people still are showing up at checkpoints with prohibited items and even firearms,” a representative from the TSA said.
By the estimates of the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency, 1.1 million international travellers enter the United States daily by air and through land and sea ports.
The agency utilises the latest technologies to screen travellers to ensure that people “who have ties to terrorism or have a criminal background are barred from entry”.
According to its website, the CBP’s mission is keep terrorists and their weapons out of the United States.
“A lot of people do not understand that we do many random inspections. They think we are picking on them. That’s just not the case,” said Peter J. Smith, the special agent in charge of New York.
Because of that, he said, the CBP got a lot of bad press, with its officers labelled as cowboys or cowgirls.
The CBP, he said, was the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with about 7,000 staff.
“These are the people you see at airports and points of entry at the border,” he said. Their priority is human and narcotics trafficking, and money laundering.
“That is why travellers leaving or entering the US carrying more than US$10,000 must declare it. If not, that money can be seized and the person subject to arrest,” he told a briefing organised by the New York Foreign Press Centre.
“You would need to go through the legal process to get the money back,” he added.
Smith noted, too, that a lot of narcotics were being brought into the country, citing attempts to smuggle in date rape drugs through Kennedy Airport.
“Cocaine has been found in the toilet, meant to be picked up by someone later,” he said.
Aren’t Customs officers going after those openly selling counterfeit goods in New York City, especially in Chinatown?
“We have a very robust enforcement, but we try to get them at the point of the goods coming off the ship or plane,” he said.
To travellers, Smith had this reminder: “Make sure you have the proper documents.
“If you’re allowed into the country for six months, you better leave after that period. With the new system coming in, we know who are supposed to stay just six months.
“And if your visa says you’re a student, you better be a student.”
He warned against using somebody else’s travel documents, “even though that picture of your brother or sister in the passport looks similar to you”.
“We are more thorough, much stricter now,” he said.
The TSA website has a list of permitted and prohibited items on the airplane; www.cbp.gov provides advice for international travellers; and www.dhs.gov/xtrvlsec/ says it all: “Know Before You Go.”
So, do a little homework before setting off on your dream trip to the land of Breakfast at Tiffany’s.