NBC SanDiego.com ^ | 11/12/04 | AP
Posted on 11/12/2004 1:03:31 PM EST by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
SAN DIEGO -- Inspectors checking the car of a smuggler at the U.S.-Mexican border found a girl hiding inside a piñata.
They said they've seen all kinds of attempts to smuggle people into the country, but this was an odd case.
Vince Bond of U.S. Customs and Border Protection said officers at the Tecate Port of Entry found the girl on Nov. 2 when they removed several piñatas from the car and one seemed much heavier than the others.
The girl, who is about 4 or 5 years old, was carefully sealed inside, but she was able to breathe. The girl's mother was curled up inside the car's trunk, and her brother, who is about 9, was underneath the collapsible back seat.
The three family members were voluntarily deported to Mexico. The driver and another passenger in the car, both American citizens, were not arrested.
Bond said the sheer volume of immigrant-smuggling cases far exceeds the government's ability to prosecute all smugglers.
