Monday, July 17, 2006

Sit carefully

I don't know how long it takes to fly from Sydney to Bangkok, but this doesn't sound like the most comfortable way to fly.
A man caught with six eggs from endangered species in his underwear as he was preparing to fly to Bangkok was fined $20,000 Monday by a judge who rejected his claim that he only wanted to surprise his girlfriend.

Wayne Frederick Floyd pleaded guilty in February to exporting regulated native specimens without a permit or exemption, an offense that carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.

Although Judge Martin Sides called it a commercial venture, he said he didn't mandate jail time because the eggs had come from a collection of birds at Floyd's home and hadn't been taken from the wild.

Floyd was about to board a flight from Sydney to Bangkok, Thailand, last November when a customs officer frisked him and noticed a suspicious bulge around his groin, the New South Wales District Court was told. A strip search revealed six eggs hidden inside a stocking in his underwear.
The sad thing is, I bet his girlfriend would have been surprised, but the authorities spoiled all that. I know I'd be surprised if someone I knew reached into their underpants and pulled out a stocking full of rare eggs. Heck, they wouldn't even have to be rare.

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