If you’re planning on traveling with a super secret and super illegal sea turtle skull, it’s probably a good idea to keep your mouth shut about it.
One couple, however, decided to opt for a different course of action: blabbing about their crimes straight to California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
As the CDFW explains in a press release, two plainclothes officers were traveling on a plane when they heard two people behind them discussing hunting. Upon engaging in conversation with them, the couple gabbed that they were hiding an illegal skull of the endangered green sea turtle in their luggage.
As if that weren’t enough, they also unwittingly implicated their family by talking about a relative’s “trophy room” which displayed illegal taxidermized mountain lions, wolves and a wolverine.
Once the flight had ended, the officers asked if they could see the turtle skull, which the couple revealed when they were outside view of TSA. They then filled out what were likely the easiest search warrants of their career.
In the end, the two were fined and convicted of violating the Fish and Game Code, as was the “trophy room” family member. All of the illegal animals were seized and forfeited by the offenders.