Smuggling.

[+SierraFive]

I am aware that many travel bugs travel backwards and forwards across the globe on a daily basis in the luggage of dedicated cachers.

 

When going through Airport security you may well be asked "Did you pack your luggage yourself" and of course the answer is invariably "Yes." well what about that stuffed toy travelbug! I hope it hasn't happened yet but has there ever been any discussion or warning to cachers about examining any travel bugs they collect before boarding aircraft to other countries. After all we are all so helpful at trying to get travel bugs to their destination (So helpful in fact that Geocaching Post Offices are springing up) that anyone could stick any item inside a travel bug, let some unsuspecting individual cacher carry it to another country and deposit it into a hole in the ground and then conveniently update the a website with its latest co-ordinates, only for the end recipient to go and retrieve it.

 

The likelihood of this happening is probably remote but I for one wouldn't take any of the stuffed toy type travel bugs into another country. The last thing I would want is some drugs dog sniffing my hand luggage for the cocaine stuffed toy I was unwittingly carrying around. I can just imagine being caught by the police in the act of stuffing a load of drugs into a cache box in a hole in the ground. Then again, someone could knowingly smuggle drugs or whatever in a travel bug and if caught plead ingnorance, claiming that they were a simple cacher with no knowledge of the drugs.

 

Small plastic key ring type TB's sure but i'm just not so keen on some of the bigger TB's.

 

Examine them before you go!!!!!

 

I'm probably just being paranoid!!!!

[+BlueDeuce]

I'm probably just being paranoid!!!!

 

I think so, but hey, pick and choose the bugs you carry and you'll be safe.

[+GreyingJay]

Common sense is always a good thing It's probably a good idea to give anything you pick up in a cache a cursory examination. I've picked up stuffed toys in caches, but generally I move them on to other caches. I wouldn't personally keep them, just because they've been sitting out in damp environments, etc.

 

As for smuggling drugs in a stuffed TB, I suppose that's possible, but it would sure be an impractical way to move a valuable (to some) payload... TB's might never make it to their intended destination, might go very slowly, get stolen, and get handled by so many people in the process that it would just be impractical. The only reason your scenario might play out would be if someone had malicious intent with the specific purpose of getting someone in trouble.

[+Quiggle]

Moving to TB forum.

[+Two Geeks and a GPS]

 

Gary's Hip

 

This is one from a local cacher. We all Got a good laugh out of this one!

I've tried the link several times and can't get it to work, so here is the story - A local cacher had a hip replacement, and as a joke another cacher made a metal "replica" hip bone and made it a TB. A third cacher had it with him at the airport (in a suitcase), apparently it looked like a gun under the xray, and it was confiscated!

 

Edit: several times to try to fix the link.

Edited September 6, 2006 by Two Geeks and a GPS

[Clan Riffster]

An interesting travel story:

When I came back from Korea, I had two stuffed animals with me in my luggage. These were the type that have weights inside to balance them in a particular pose. The guy at Customs felt the lumps inside and told me he'd need to open them if I wanted to bring them in-country. Out came the razor, and two C-sections were performed. In one, he found a bag of plastic pellets. No problem. In the other, he found a bag of crushed walnut shells. Apparently you're not allowed to bring crushed walnut shells into the U.S., so the Customs guy disposed of them.

The irony is, the stuffed animal with the pellets came from Korea. The one with the shells I purchased in the U.S. for my trip.

[terrible2u]

I am aware that many travel bugs travel backwards and forwards across the globe on a daily basis in the luggage of dedicated cachers.

 

you just made my day, i was thinking for so long how i could my drug business running worldwide, and geocaching is just the right solution. imagine, i put up all this caches in middle- and south america, stuff them with cocaine-rabbits and give them TB's with destinations in north america, europe..

 

=irony off=

[+SierraFive]

I am aware that many travel bugs travel backwards and forwards across the globe on a daily basis in the luggage of dedicated cachers.

 

you just made my day, i was thinking for so long how i could my drug business running worldwide, and geocaching is just the right solution. imagine, i put up all this caches in middle- and south america, stuff them with cocaine-rabbits and give them TB's with destinations in north america, europe..

 

=irony off=

 

Yep, next drug stuffed bunny step up to the Stargate Cache and state your destination........