The TSA Found This Live Python Hidden in an External Hard Drive in Florida

There are a lot of things you might have considered sneaking onto a plane: weed, liquids in excess of 3.4 ounces, possibly liquor. But you, a rational human being, have probably never attempted to sneak a snake onto a plane, because you are sane and live in a society.

And yet, there are some people who do things like that: for instance, the passenger who was caught on Sunday trying to bring a python concealed inside a computer's hard drive through Miami International Airport.

"The snake, that didn’t get on a plane thanks to our officers' diligent screening, had been artfully concealed inside the electronics of a hard drive and placed in a checked bag headed for a flight to Barbados," Sari Koshetz, a TSA spokeswoman, told the Miami Herald. "Upon the TSA officer’s discovery of the organic mass, one of our TSA bomb experts was called into the baggage screening room to investigate the innards of the hard drive and that is when he discovered the mass was a live snake."

The passenger was fined and wasn't able to board their flight to Barbados, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services took possession of the snake.

Koshetz also explained that snakes have been known to escape in planes and chew through wires, which, while not a terrorist threat, could be fatal to the animal and cause problems for the aircraft.

So, the lesson here is, uh, don't do this.

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