U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents seized unusual souvenirs from a Virginia woman's luggage at Washington Dulles International Airport in November: animal bones.
The Fauquier County woman was flying into Dulles from Kenya last month when agents X-rayed her baggage and found giraffe and zebra bones, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection release.
She initially did not declare having the bones, but later admitted she picked them up to keep as souvenirs.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service inspectors determined the bones violated some international laws regarding endangered species and directed the CBP to seize the bones.
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
CBP released the woman after agriculture specialists detained the bones.
“I can appreciate travelers wanting to keep souvenirs of their vacations, but those souvenirs could violate United States or international law, or potentially expose our families, pets or our nation’s agriculture industries to serious animal or plant diseases,” Kim Der-Yeghiayan, a CBP Area Port of Washington, D.C. representative said in a statement.
The woman was not criminally charged.
