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A passenger travelling from Miami International Airport in Florida was stopped by security after he was found with a bag of snakes hidden down his trousers.
Alarms alerted security guards to an “anomaly” on the man’s person and he was taken for a pat-down, where he admitted to concealing the reptiles, on Friday 26 April.
Pictures posted online by the Transportation Security Administration showed the two small, pink snakes that had been removed from a camouflage-coloured bag. Police and Customs and Border Patrol were called and the animals were safely turned over to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The post spawned several risque jokes from social media users, as well as a string of references to the 2006 film Snakes On A Plane, starring Samuel L Jackson.
A TSA spokesman told The Independent that the passenger was attempting to take an international flight but had “basically admitted there were snakes in his pants” when the alarms had sounded.
Airport security uses Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) to detect irregularities.
“It showed that there was an anomaly in the groin area and it marks it for a pat-down. When the passenger came through they said that they needed to do a pat-down and that’s when he admitted that there were snakes in his pants,” the spokesperson told The Independent.
“At that point, they contacted law enforcement from there so I think that he knew that, you know, once the technology flagged him for a search that he was caught and he admitted to it.”
The man was subsequently forbidden to board his flight, the spokesperson said, adding that such incidents were not “commonplace”.
However, in January 2023, TSA agents in Tampa, Florida found a four-foot boa constrictor concealed in a passenger’s bag that they claimed was an “emotional support animal”.
At the time the agency shared a pun-laden post on Instagram which showed the “danger noodle” going through the airport’s X-ray machine.
“Our officers at Tampa International Airport didn’t find this hyssssssterical! Coiled up in a passenger’s carry-on was a 4’ boa constrictor! We really have no adder-ation for discovering any pet going through an x-ray machine,” TSA wrote.
It is understood that the boa constrictor was also turned over to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The Independent has reached out to the agency for comment about the condition of the snakes discovered in Miami on Friday.
Source: independent.co.uk
