Things travelers should put in a money belt: Passport, tickets, cash, emergency

contact information. Things travelers should not put in a money belt: lizards. It

may seem rather obvious to most readers of this blog, but there's one guy in

California who somehow never picked up this basic tenet of travel wisdom. As the

LA Times points out, 40-year-old Michael Plank was arrested by U.S. Customs

agents at Los Angeles International Airport this week when he was found to have

15 lizards stuffed in a money belt. Plank was on his way back from Australia and

apparently decided to bring 11 skinks, two monitor lizards, and two geckos with

him to his LA home, where they'd be worth around $8,500.

Incidents like this are both amusing and sad. While the idea of somebody

concealing lizards (or birds, snakes, or even monkeys) on their person in an

airplane is comical, the illegal animal trade is an icky business, pushing many

beautiful creatures to the brink of extinction. If you really need a lizard in

your life, consider a visit the reptile section of the Los Angeles Zoo instead of

buying one for your home. They've got everything from Chinese alligators to

Komodo dragons in funky natural settings, and you don't have to clean up any

lizard poop.

As for Plank, he probably got busted because he got greedy. If he was only

smuggling one or two geckos, he may have gotten away with it, but 15 lizards is

definitely pushing it. It's the politics of contraband I guess. The reptile

smugglers blues.

out of out of http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/21/12217/029/travel/Leapin%27+Lizards!+Cali+Man+Busted+Smuggling+Aussie+Reptiles+in+Money+Belt