A snake is still stranded in the United States after airline security refused to allow it to board a plane to the Caribbean.
Transportation Security Administration officers at Miami International Airport found a ball python hidden inside a hard drive enclosure on Tuesday.
TSA spokesperson Sari Koshetz shared a photo of the bundled snake on Twitter, saying, “This organic mass was not explosive, but it shows you can’t hide any threat from us.”
TSA Officers at MIA intercepted this Ball or Royal Python artfully concealed inside a hard drive. This organic mass was not explosive, but it shows you can’t hide any threat from us. pic.twitter.com/mmCIQmOKxQ
— TSAmedia_SariK (@TSAmedia_SariK) July 9, 2018
Koshetz then seemed to nod to a classic 2006 Samuel Jackson film in her statement to the Miami Herald.
“The snake, that didn’t get on a plane thanks to our officers’ diligent screening, had been artfully concealed inside the electronics of a hard drive and placed in a checked bag headed for a flight to Barbados.”
When TSA officers found the “organic mass” in the hard drive, a bomb expert was called in, Koshetz said. She explained that even though a snake is “obviously not an imminent terrorist threat” it can still endanger passengers.
“Animals of many species have been known to escape and chew through wires with fatal results,” she told the outlet.
The US Fish and Wildlife Services officials apprehended the snake, and the TSA fined the passenger who attempted to smuggle the python aboard the aircraft. The person’s name was not made public.
A TSA Instagram post expressed empathy for the real victim of this incident: “If you think aeroplane seats can feel constricting, imagine how this little guy felt! Talk about bad memories!”