Say What Now? Man Arrested for Trying to Smuggle an Orangutan on an Airplane

A Russian man thought he could get away with smuggling an ape on a plane.

via NYP:

Andrei Zhestkov, 27, stuffed the stowaway — a sleeping orangutan — in his luggage, officials at Bali Airport in Indonesia said.

He had a few other traveling companions: two live gekkos and five lizards.

Officials quoted the man-agerie as saying he wanted to keep the two-year-old male primate as a pet.

Conservation official Ketut Catur Marbawa said Zhestkov was “prepared, like he was transporting a baby.”

He took along baby food and allergy pills, which he fed his prospective pet to make it sleep.

Zhestkov, who had been planning to fly back to Russia, claimed the protected animal was given to him by a friend who bought it for $3,000 at a street market in Java.

Orangutans are endangered and Zhestkov could face as much as five years prison and a $7,000 fine.

Can you imagine if the orangutan woke up mid-flight? Chaos.