While certainly turtle-y enough for the Turtle Club, a Pennsylvania man was a little too turtle-y for airport security.
The unnamed gentleman was making his way through the TSA checkpoint at Newark Airport when the body scan picked up on something “in the area of the man’s groin.” According to a TSA statement, that’s because the man was hiding a live turtle under his pants.
“A TSA officer administered a pat-down of the area of the man’s body where the alarm was triggered and in doing so, determined that there was something concealed in the area of the man’s groin,” the statement reads. “When asked if there was something hidden in his pants, the man, a resident of East Stroudsburg, Pa., reached down the front of his pants and pulled out a live turtle that was wrapped in a small blue towel.”
Upon removing the 5-inch reptile from its former hiding area, the man was removed from the security area and ended up missing his flight. His bad day continued when the Port Authority police took the turtle into their custody.
“I believe this is the first time we have come across someone who was concealing a live animal down the front of his pants,” says Thomas Carter, TSA’s federal security director for New Jersey. “As best as we could tell, the turtle was not harmed by the man’s actions.”