Unwelcome Baggage

[BlankBox]

Last Jan me and the Wifey traveled to S/E Asia for our regular respit from the -40 days here. That trip .... an interesting occurance. We flew YQR - YVR - HKG - ???
Purposely left the last destination blank to protect the innocent. Now the story. We took a dissassembled Barbeque that I threw into my old carry-all. Not a problem all the way....till we got to the other end. Cleared thru customs...the whole nine yards. Got to wifey's sister's place...and decided to put it together. Dumped all the piece parts on the ground....and lo' and behold ....out popped 3 - 12 gauge shot-gun shells! These were a "made in Canada" type that I'm familiar with...but I"m sure our "Host" country wasn't....and these "things" are on their banned - prohibited list....and if entry inspection was up to snuff ...we'd o' been in deep doodoo huh? Anybody else had this type of thing happen?

curious..

[Piltdown Man]

As checked in baggage, shotgun cartridges are allowed - up to 5ks per person I believe (but they should be properly packed). If you consider they safely aspects, unless they are in the barrel of a shotgun, they won't be able to impart too much energy into their projectiles and the bang won't do too much damage either. It's the potential fire that's the biggest worry! And as noboddy was looking for cartridges, they wouldn't be spotted - they were looking for white powder, not black! I'd quietly throw them away. And, yes it happens a lot.

[PAXboy]

And, yes it happens a lot.
Eh??? Could you expand on that to any degree? In what way is it normal for a pax's baggage to have items added to it, as opposed to the usual subtraction? Or do you mean that both the addition of items is normal AND for them to be shotgun cartridges?? :uhoh:

[Tolsti]

Alright... I can't resist it any longer..... why on earth would you take a BBQ in your luggage???

[Final 3 Greens]

why on earth would you take a BBQ in your luggage??? Because they don't fit into hand baggage!

[BlankBox]

aaaahhh!...because they just aren't available there at a REASONABLE price...and what there is is somewhat lacking in features and quality. Then we just pass it on to the relatives when we pull up "steaks" to return.....(couldn't resist):D

[Bus429]

C'mon, BlankBox, tell us the final destination;)

[Piltdown Man]

PAXboy, lots of people travel with things they think will be useful when they get to more distant places. One of the favourite items used to be camping gas cylinders. I've also seen real and imitation firearms (undisclosed) as part of checked baggage. Personally, I have offloaded smoke flares, rockets, magnets, bush meat etc... And then there's the return trip. "Cor, you can't half buy cracking fireworks in ... (Fill in Spain/Greece/Turkey/etc.), I'll take some home for Guy Fawkes Night!" And then there's those who make genuine mistakes and unwittingly take things they didn't meant to.

So yes IT HAPPENS ALOT!

[edusaeanna]

My idiot of a brother almost got himself and my dad arrested flying back from Orkney to Inverness, he's big into aviation archeology (crashed old planes to you and me), anyway, while out and about on Orkney he collected hundreds of old bullets, shells and the like and put them into his luggage... They are ofcourse called over the tannoy at the airport/shed and are swiftly pulled into a sideroom to be questioned as to why they are carrying ammunition of this kind and are basically told 'don't do it again!'....hilarious, who'd have thought I was related to him.. :p

[PAXboy]

Piltdown: Thanks for that bit of background. The second question remains ... about finding that items have been added to your luggage during transit - or am I missing something???

[DG101]

Paxboy

Why do you think items were added? The original post makes no such claim

[PAXboy]

Got to wifey's sister's place...and decided to put it together. Dumped all the piece parts on the ground....and lo' and behold ....out popped 3 - 12 gauge shot-gun shells! Ah, so that is to indicate that they had accidentally included them with the BBQ? It read as if they had never seen them before and that the items had been added by others.

As one of our regulars says, "I'll get me coat..." :O

[BlankBox]

yep...never seen before being dumped with the other piece parts....was quite a shock. Still no wiser about oher pax inclusions though. Thought later that Canadian security (?? ..hehe) was running some "tests" that ran askew..

....as an after thought...is this possibly SLF (self loading freight) ??

[DG101]

Paxboy Ah, so that is to indicate that they had accidentally included them
That's how I interpreted it, especially considering These were a "made in Canada" type that I'm familiar with

However, his latest post seems to indicate your intrepretation was correct. I bow to your superior insightfulness :\

[Self Loading Freight]

Silliest thing I ever took with me in hand luggage was some home made ham radio equipment. Nothing illegal - but I didn't think how the combination of circuit boards, cables, odd cylindrical components and antenna would look on the scanner.

"Never seen anything like that in all my years" said the security guy, after we'd had a little chat...

R