Passenger hides animals in 'unbelievable places' on plane

The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has asked passengers to "stop hiding animals in strange places" after a woman was caught red-handed stuffing two live turtles into her bra before boarding a plane.

The agency shared photos of the reptiles, wrapped in bandages and plastic wrap, discovered by TSA officers on July 22 at Miami International Airport in the US. They were stunned by how the woman tried to smuggle the two animals onto her flight.

"We are back with another urgent plea to ask passengers to stop hiding animals in strange places on their bodies before boarding," TSA said.

In the first photo, one turtle is wrapped in medical tape. The other appears to be wrapped in plastic wrap. In the second photo, the animals are freed from their restraints, with one crawling around a trash can while the other remains cowering in its shell.

A TSA spokesperson told People that after Advanced Imaging Technology alerted agents to the woman's chest, the passenger was forced to remove the two live turtles from the "suspected area."

While rare, this isn't the first time TSA has caught a passenger trying to sneak a turtle through airport security onto a plane.

On March 7, a TSA body scanner at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey went off after a man walked through it.

TSA officers searched the area of ​​the man's body where the alarm was triggered and discovered something hidden in the man's groin area.

When asked if he had anything hidden in his pants, the man, a resident of East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, reached down the front of his pants and pulled out a live turtle wrapped in a small blue towel.

After finding the turtle, which was about 5 inches long, officials took it in and said they contacted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and local animal control agencies to take it in.

"I commend our officers for conducting a very professional search to resolve the alert," Thomas Carter, TSA's federal security director for New Jersey, said in a press release. "We have seen passengers attempt to conceal knives and other weapons on their person, in their shoes and in their luggage, but I believe this is the first time we have encountered someone concealing a live animal in their pants."