Home Are These the Weirdest Things People Have Tried Sending Abroad?

Are These the Weirdest Things People Have Tried Sending Abroad?

Posted by on January 19th, 2016.

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There are certain things you just can’t live without, no matter where you move. But if you’re emigrating you’ll have to really evaluate your possessions and assess which things are important enough to make the transition with you.

Everyone has different priorities, which is why one person might focus on essentials while another might ensure their suit of armour is the first thing that gets packed. Here are some cautionary tales of things you probably shouldn’t send abroad so that when you come to arranging your emigration, you don’t get caught up in any red tape or find yourself missing an important possession because it was transported in the wrong way.

A Passport

There has been more than one story in the papers about someone who went overseas and then realised that had left their passport at home. While it’s not clear how someone managed to get abroad without their passport, it is clear that having it posted to you isn’t a great idea. Just as you shouldn’t travel abroad without your passport, your passport shouldn’t travel abroad with you.

8oz of Bear Repellent

There might be a small risk of bears when moving abroad depending on where you’re going. It’s likely that bear repellent would be widely available in countries where bears pose a serious threat to your safety. The US Transport Security Administration (TSA) really shouldn’t have had to confiscate an eight ounce canister of bear repellent from someone’s carry luggage in a Phoenix airport. After all, aeroplanes tend to be quite safe from bears as they are.

A Piece of Wood

People often like to improve their properties, adding a few homely touches to create the perfect overseas retreat. There’s no point moving to a hot country if you haven’t got plenty of outdoor space, for instance. A piece of wood could come in handy for making repairs or starting off some decking. But most countries overseas have trees of some description, so it’s not entirely clear why someone tried and send a piece of wood in the mail.

A One Dollar Bill

Of all the ways of sending money abroad, this one is probably the least efficient (keep reading for another, though). Putting a stamp on a single US Dollar and popping it in the mail, as one individual attempted, has many problems. For starters, it lacks the security of an FCA regulated company. Plus it might get ripped, damp, or left with a neighbour. Also, with a postage price of $0.49 cents, that’s commission of 49%.

The Dollar in question was sent to Ripley’s Believe it or Not as part of a challenge to see what could successfully make its way through the US postal system. While it proves you can put a stamp on legal tender and send it via snail mail, there are many reasons why you shouldn’t.

A Suit of Armour

You may be heading abroad to experience a new location and culture, but sometimes you just want a piece of home with you. So it makes sense to take your suit of armour with you to remind you of good old Blighty. More confusing than someone trying to take medieval battle dress with them is why they wouldn’t enquire after it when it became lost baggage. It currently stands guard in Scottsboro, Alabama, where it is an exhibit at the Unclaimed Baggage Center.

An Inflated Beach Ball

If you’re immigrating to a hot country from a cold one, you might want to make good use of every second of sun there is. You don’t have time to do trivial things like inflate your beach balls. It’d be much more convenient, surely, if they arrived pre-inflated, so it’s good to know that if you planned on posting yourself one that had already been blown up it would arrive in the same condition. That’s ten seconds of extra volleyball time you’ve gained.

A Tiger

Lots of people take their pets with them when they move overseas, just not in their suitcase. A live tiger cub was found sedated in a Thai woman’s suitcase in 2010. Thankfully the airport’s X-ray machine detected the two-month-old cub’s heartbeat and it was promptly given to a good home. She’s not the only one to try moving animals this way: in 2005 a woman in Melbourne airport was stopped after making ‘flipping noises’. It turned out she had 51 tropical fish concealed in containers inside her clothes, while in 2009 a man from Dubai was found with two live pigeons in his trousers.

Remember, there are proper channels to go through in order to move your pets abroad. Tiger’s aren’t hand luggage.

Euros

What’s weird about sending Euros overseas, you might ask. There’s nothing strange about wanting to send money abroad, although the method of delivery in this particular case was a bit strange. Rather than using an electronic transfer, the persons in question tried to get their Euros past customs by rolling them up and hiding the wads inside croissants. The money was wrapped in tin foil so that the croissants could be baked without damaging the cash, which makes sense when you think about it as croissants are much better fresh from the oven.

How to Make Sure Your Possessions and Money Arrive Abroad Safely

We’ll probably never know the full story behind many of the strange items that get sent abroad. If you want to make sure something precious of yours doesn’t become the next strange item on a list of weird things stopped at airports or undelivered by the postal service, it’s worth looking up the rules and regulations of your new country of residence.

And if you want to know whether the post, the inside of a croissant, or a regulated currency broker is the best way for you to transfer money abroad, we can help.

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