An African traveler, who had more than 33 pounds of dead caterpillars in his luggage, started to eat the bugs when security at Switzerland's EuroAirport threatened to take the creepy cargo away.
Adrian Ononajno, 47,was stopped and search when he arrived at the EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse Frieburg, near the Swiss city of Basel, according to the Austrian Times. Border Guards had noticed something off when they inspected his bag with an X-ray scanner. There was also an overwhelming smell coming from the Togo man's bag. When they opened his bag, they found a bizarre find--thousands of dead black caterpillars.
When border guards told Ononajno that they had to confiscate the caterpillars, his reaction shocked them.
"The smell from the caterpillars that were mostly dead was pretty unbearable but it didn't seem to bother the man - and when he was told they would be kept and destroyed he grabbed as many as he could and started munching them. He said they were a delicacy and should not be wasted," Border Guard section chief Martin Leuenberger told the Austrian Times.
The discovery was unlike anything the border guards had ever witnessed.
"Even border guards hardened by the bizarre things we have had to deal with were shocked by this particular case," said Border guard spokesman Patrick Gantenbein.
The man knew very well that he shouldn't be carrying the bugs as he tried to hide under a secret compartment within his luggage.
"He tried to tell us that it was a special type of root, but some of them were still moving. Then he claimed that, as they were for personal use, he should still be allowed to bring them into the country because they were a snack, and he was addicted to them," said Gantenbein.
The remaining caterpillars were stored overnight in a sealed container in a fridge and were later destroyed.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
