A traveler was found to have a small turtle concealed in his pants after airport staff discovered something hard in his groin area after a pat-down. The man was attempting to board a plane at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey last week when the body scanner flagged something unusual under his waistline. After a pat-down the staffer determined something rigid and around five inches long was stowed in his drawers. The flyer fessed up and pulled the reptile, wrapped in a blue towel, from his trousers. He missed his flight and was escorted away by police, the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement. The animal, a red-ear slider turtle, appeared unharmed and will be turned over to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “We have seen travelers try to conceal knives and other weapons on their person, in their shoes and in their luggage, however I believe this is the first time we have come across someone who was concealing a live animal down the front of his pants,” Thomas Carter, the TSA’s Federal Security Director for New Jersey, said.
