Is That a Crocodile In your Pocket or are you Just Happy to See Me?

I imagine things are always at least a little bit exciting at the Gaza-Egypt border crossing, but I can't think of much that would top the hoopla of last week when a woman attempted to smuggle 3 live crocodiles into Gaza. The act of smuggling crocodiles into a country that pays big money for them isn't really that interesting. The fun part is the method of transport. The woman had strapped the crocodiles (each about 20 inches long) around her body. Lucky for all involved, she had had the forethought to tie their jaws shut before roping them around her midsection. The woman was busted when guards noticed that she looked "strangely fat". Yeah, packing on a couple of extra crocodile's will do that to a person.

Had she made it, the crocs would have fetched the woman about $500 a piece. That's about 6 month's salary. The woman is not the first to attempt at exotic animal smuggling at this checkpoint. In another incident, guards found a monkey strapped to a woman's chest.

I was going to give this woman the Tarable Idea Award until somebody pointed out the sheer brilliance of the plan. If you are willing to strap live crocodiles to your body, it isn't a hard way to make $1,500 cash. I'm thinking about a new career.

* Thanks to Dave and Kumquat for the tip.

** Before any of you nerds have a chance to e-mail me, yeah, I know that picture is of an American Crocodile and most likely NOT a good example of what she was packing, but if the Bush Administration can change scientific reports to inject doubt about the role man-made emissions play in global warming, I too can disregard accuracy in reporting.