A Virginia woman was found with some rather unusual souvenirs in her luggage at Washington Dulles International Airport last month.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection says the women brought giraffe and zebra bones from Kenya, which were found during a secondary baggage examination on Nov. 10. The bones were then transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for examination, which found the bones were in violation of several laws.
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The agency says the woman initially did not include the bones on her declaration form but later amended it to include them after CBP “discovered an anomaly.” She was not charged with a crime for possessing the bones.
Kim Der-Yeghiayan, acting area port director for CBP’s Area Port of Washington, D.C., reminded travelers not to bring illegal materials back to the United States in a press release Friday.
“I can appreciate travelers wanting to keep souvenirs of their vacations, but those souvenirs could violate United States or international law, or potentially expose our families, pets or our nation’s agriculture industries to serious animal or plant diseases. Customs and Border Protection strongly encourages all travelers to know what they can and cannot pack in their baggage before returning to or visiting the United States and to declare all items upon arrival,” Der-Yeghiayan said.
The director of field operations for the Baltimore CBP office, Stephen Maloney, shared a picture of the bones in a tweet, saying, “Here’s something you don’t see everyday.”
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The agency says on an average day in 2021, CBP agents seized 4,552 prohibited plant, meat, and animal byproducts and soil through security screenings.
