Wearing crocodile gets woman stopped at border

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 27, 2007

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JERUSALEM - A woman with three crocodiles strapped to her waist was stopped at the Gaza-Egypt border crossing after guards noticed that she looked "strangely fat," officials said Monday.

The woman's shape raised suspicions at the Rafah terminal in southern Gaza, and a body search by a female border guard turned up the animals, each about 20 inches long, concealed underneath her loose robe.

"The policewoman screamed and ran out of the room, and then women began screaming and panicking when they heard," said Maria Telleria, spokeswoman for the group that runs the crossing. But when the hysteria died down, she said, "everybody was admiring a woman who is able to tie crocodiles to her body."

The reptiles, which had their jaws tied shut with string, were returned to the Egyptian side of the border. The woman was permitted to cross without the animals.