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PHOTO: Smuggler Caught With 14 Birds in Pants
nationalgeographic ^ | May 11, 2009

Posted on 05/11/2009 7:51:34 PM PDT by JoeProBono

Given away by bird poop on his socks, fancy pants here was charged Tuesday in California with smuggling exotic Asian songbirds from Vietnam into the United States by strapping them onto his legs.

Droppings on Sony Dong's socks and feathers peeking out from under a pant leg tipped off a Los Angeles International Airport inspector in March, who arrested the 46-year-old.

Dong wore an elaborate set of leggings with buttoned cloth wrappings, which held more than a dozen birds (pictured), the Associated Press reported.

Inspectors had flagged Dong for inspection because he had abandoned a suitcase of 18 birds in the L.A. airport in December 2008.

He had returned to Vietnam in February to collect more songbirds, which included red-whiskered bulbuls, magpie robins, and shama thrushes.

The animals sell for up to U.S. $400 each in the United States,


TOPICS: Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: birds; smuggler

1 posted on 05/11/2009 7:51:34 PM PDT by JoeProBono
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To: JoeProBono
Smuggler Caught With 14 Birds in Pants

Some jokes just write themselves.

2 posted on 05/11/2009 7:55:04 PM PDT by alicewonders
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To: JoeProBono

Are you glad to see me or is that a bird in your pocket???


3 posted on 05/11/2009 7:56:34 PM PDT by DeLaine (Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. (MLK))
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To: JoeProBono

What, no cockatoos?


4 posted on 05/11/2009 7:56:49 PM PDT by Vigilantcitizen (This tagline has been shutdown due to lack of funds.)
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To: alicewonders

5 posted on 05/11/2009 7:59:39 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: DeLaine

6 posted on 05/11/2009 8:00:53 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: JoeProBono

Those poor birds, unfortunately they will be put down.


7 posted on 05/11/2009 8:02:15 PM PDT by mnehring
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To: JoeProBono

A previous article
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2245263/posts
mentions that the perps are using public defenders. Presumably smuggling
birds is not that lucrative with respect to the risk involved.


8 posted on 05/11/2009 8:06:15 PM PDT by posterchild (Endowed by my Creator with certain unalienable rights.)
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To: JoeProBono

if it were a lady it could have been worth 2 in the bush


9 posted on 05/11/2009 8:06:38 PM PDT by fortunate sun (Undermine Obama with every thought, word and deed.)
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To: mnehring
The one that got away


10 posted on 05/11/2009 8:07:54 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: fortunate sun
A bird in hand


11 posted on 05/11/2009 8:11:42 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: All

When I was 14, I was in a State Park in Maryland with my friend, Ricky Mabe. We saw some ducks swimming around, and for some unknown reason, thought it would be great fun to lure them over and try to nail one with a rock.

So my friend picked up some pebbles and started sprinkling them around like they were some kind of bird seed, and that brought the ducks to about ten yards away, but being the cautious creatures they were, would come no closer.

When they turned away because it was clear there was no food, I let fly with a rock at the closest duck.

To my everlasting surprise (and actual horror)...I hit one! To be honest, I didn’t think I had a snowball’s chance in hell of hitting it, but there it was, stone dead on the ground.

I immediately thought “Jesus...the thing is dead! I actually hit it!” and looked up in time to see a sign that I had not previously seen, large, prominent and clear: “Harming or abusing park wildlife is punishable by a $1000 fine and up to five years in jail.”

How I missed it can be explained by the fact that I was a dumb ass fourteen year old kid, bored enough to pay no attention to what I was actually doing. Horrified, I wildly looked around for any authority figures, fully expecting to see a Park Ranger right behind me. That was the way things went for me in those days.

When I saw no uniforms or anyone paying attention, I ran over and scooped the dead duck up off the ground, shoved it in my coat and zipped it up. Sweating profusely, I hissed to my friend “Let’s get the HELL out of here! Oh shit, oh shit...my dad is going to kill me...”

I had visions of my dad being forced to pay some huge fine, which would then be taken out of my hide. That is, if I didn’t go to jail or something. My friend, who had not seen the sign, was puzzled by my behavior and kept asking “What’s wrong? What’s wrong?”

Without explaining to him, I turned on my heel as beads of forehead sweat took shape in spite of the crisp autumn air. Walking in an abnormally stiff gait with a lump under my jacket I was sure everyone could clearly see, I walked towards the ranger shack at the entranceway to the park that I had to pass to get out.

As I approached the shack, trying to look inconspicuous, my coat came to life. Doesn’t that damned dead duck under my coat come to life and begin wriggling and croaking dazed duck quacks! I quickly squirted by the bored ranger who could not have cared less and did not even look at me, and walked quickly down the road in horror as the duck began ever more strenouous wiggling and quacking.

I ripped open my coat and did a little dance of horror (because to a kid like me, there was nothing weirder and more panic inducing than some wild creature having a seizure inside your clothes) and that fricking duck landed on the road in a heap of feathers and began flopping around, eventually taking a half-running, half flying exit down the road and back into the park.

Really...I was horrified. It was a classic case of a stupid kid doing something without even bothering to think it through...I had not even given one iota of thought towards what I would do if I hit the duck. What was I thinking? Was I going to try to pluck it and eat it? Hardly...


12 posted on 05/11/2009 8:15:28 PM PDT by rlmorel ("The Road to Serfdom" by F.A.Hayek - Read it...today.)
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To: rlmorel

LOL.. too classic.


13 posted on 05/11/2009 8:22:59 PM PDT by placerville
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To: JoeProBono

Wow...cheep socks...


14 posted on 05/11/2009 8:25:08 PM PDT by Voter62vb
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To: placerville

42 posted on Monday, October 22, 2007 9:21:58 PM by rlmorel


15 posted on 05/11/2009 8:32:53 PM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, then writes again.)
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To: Voter62vb

...I’ve never seen a guy with multiple peckers in his pants.


16 posted on 05/11/2009 8:33:06 PM PDT by Winstons Julia (:)
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To: JoeProBono; AuntB; DeLaine
Reminds me of the kid and the old man on the bus...

Old man gets on the bus and has a seat. Couldn't help but stare at a punk kid with a multi-colored mo-hawk.

After while the kid starts ragging on the old man. Finally looking to really taunt the old man, he says-

"What's a matter old man, didn't you ever doing anything wild when you werre a kid?"

The old man finally says "Ya, I did."

So the kid says Ya?! So what did you was wild?

"Well....I got real drunk once, and had sex with a parrot. Thought you might be my kid"
17 posted on 05/11/2009 8:57:13 PM PDT by Issaquahking (Keep your change obummer, I STILL support Sarah!)
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To: Issaquahking

Hoot!!!!!!


18 posted on 05/11/2009 9:02:17 PM PDT by DeLaine (Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. (MLK))
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To: Issaquahking

19 posted on 05/11/2009 9:04:03 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: Issaquahking
So the kid says Ya?! So what did you do that was wild?
20 posted on 05/11/2009 10:30:58 PM PDT by Issaquahking (Keep your change obummer, I STILL support Sarah!)
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To: JoeProBono

Dang, what an idiot


21 posted on 05/11/2009 10:32:01 PM PDT by KLT (A damn Yankee, from the great state of Mississippi....Go Freepers Go!)
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To: JoeProBono
Lucky he didn't have this chicken:


22 posted on 05/11/2009 10:34:39 PM PDT by KLT (A damn Yankee, from the great state of Mississippi....Go Freepers Go!)
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To: KLT

23 posted on 05/11/2009 10:36:58 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: JoeProBono

Now that’s a nice chicken too...think of all the chicken we can fry up...


24 posted on 05/11/2009 10:37:57 PM PDT by KLT (A damn Yankee, from the great state of Mississippi....Go Freepers Go!)
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To: Winstons Julia

You can tell he’s a guy that has multiple peckers in his pants because of the brazen flocking of socksual status....


25 posted on 05/12/2009 6:41:35 AM PDT by Voter62vb
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To: windcliff

ping


26 posted on 05/12/2009 10:25:33 AM PDT by stylecouncilor (The black man is keeping me down!)
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To: JoeProBono

Awe... look at the little peckers...


27 posted on 05/12/2009 10:26:14 AM PDT by montyspython (Love that chicken from Popeye's)
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To: montyspython

28 posted on 05/12/2009 10:29:48 AM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: JoeProBono

Wait.... why is he smuggling birds? And why is it illegal?


29 posted on 05/12/2009 10:30:38 AM PDT by The Future 2012 (Would the good people like a reply?)
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To: JoeProBono

Didn’t Peter Piper have a pecker problem with his pickle?


30 posted on 05/12/2009 10:31:35 AM PDT by montyspython (Love that chicken from Popeye's)
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To: The Future 2012

31 posted on 05/12/2009 10:37:02 AM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: Slings and Arrows; Revolting cat!

The latest in fashion from Milan.

32 posted on 05/12/2009 11:34:52 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (If Liberals are so upset over torture, why did they mock John McCains stiff arms during the campaign)
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To: rlmorel

With all due respect, 14 or not, you completely earned all of your emotional stress. At least you had a pang of conscience.


33 posted on 05/12/2009 11:42:53 AM PDT by Lucius Cornelius Sulla ("men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters." -- Edmund Burke)
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To: a fool in paradise; MeekOneGOP; Conspiracy Guy; DocRock; King Prout; Darksheare; OSHA; ...
Inspectors had flagged Dong for inspection

They knew Dong was up...to something.


34 posted on 05/12/2009 12:02:26 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (Israel is built on rock. Arabia is built on sand.)
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To: JoeProBono

Any woodpeckers?


35 posted on 05/12/2009 12:07:14 PM PDT by Hatteras
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To: Allegra
Now these are some kinda socks...
36 posted on 05/12/2009 12:11:02 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Hatteras

37 posted on 05/12/2009 12:16:25 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: rlmorel

I laughed out loud for real.


38 posted on 05/12/2009 12:19:54 PM PDT by BJClinton (One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: Lucius Cornelius Sulla

I agree completely that I earned that. I cannot even hurt a fly now. Well, okay flies, mosquitoes and ticks. And spiders that crawl on me. Well, I don’t hurt mammals anyway. I was not a very sharp 14 year old kid. I didn’t understand a lot of things in life at that point, and didn’t know how to handle a lot of things.


39 posted on 05/12/2009 6:50:29 PM PDT by rlmorel ("The Road to Serfdom" by F.A.Hayek - Read it...today.)
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To: JoeProBono; a fool in paradise

Dude had quacks in his slacks!


40 posted on 05/12/2009 6:54:23 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Let us prey!)
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To: rlmorel

Well fish might be OK! They are (mostly) tasty!


41 posted on 05/12/2009 7:01:15 PM PDT by Lucius Cornelius Sulla ("men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters." -- Edmund Burke)
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To: Revolting cat!

42 posted on 05/12/2009 7:16:01 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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