'Coo' as in the bird variety, that is, as well as a 'coup' in the achievement sense! A tip of the hat to Julie for e-mailing me the link to this report.
An alleged bird smuggler had his feathers ruffled when Customs officers seized two live pigeons stuffed into his tights.The 23-year-old man of Meadow Heights in suburban Melbourne had just landed at Melbourne Airport on Sunday after a flight from Dubai when customs and border control officers stopped him and searched his bags.
They allegedly found in the man's pocket a multi-vitamin container holding two birds eggs, and a further search revealed he was wearing tights with the two live birds stuffed inside, one in each leg.
Officers also seized a money belt containing plant seeds and undeclared samples of eggplant in the passenger's baggage before he was handed over to Australian Quarantine and Inspection Services staff.
If convicted, the alleged smuggler could face up to 10 years in jail and/or a $110,000 fine.
A Customs spokeswoman said it was not known what the pigeons were intended to be used for, adding the man was expected to be charged on summons with wildlife smuggling offences.
Can't have been very comfortable, for either the birds or the man!
I'm particularly amused by this because Aussies refer to tight male underwear and swimming-costimes as 'budgie-smugglers'. There are lots of pictures of the offending garments here. Seems to me that if he was going into pigeon-smuggling, he could at least have lived up to his Australian heritage and put them inside a more appropriate garment!
Peter
I think that they didn't show more than his legs because they don't want their readers to know that he is, in reality, Sasquatch. The pigeons were his lunch.
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