KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 23 — A house cat's attempt to hitch a ride via a travel bag failed after it was discovered by an airport X-ray machine.
The bag was checked in at the JFK Airport in New York City and was put through the machine before it was discovered by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Fox 13 reported.
The bag owner told TSA officers that the orange tabby belonged to his housemate and he had no idea that the cat was inside the bag.
TSA spokesman Lisa Farbstein reportedly said the cat was removed from the bag and sent home.
This is how @TSA at @JFKairport spotted the cat in the checked bag. The X-ray machine is this cat's new best friend! https://t.co/Bns0z28BCL
— Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson (@TSA_Northeast) November 22, 2022
In a subsequent tweet, Farbstein shared that the X-ray machine was the cat's new best friend.
“That's because the feline likely wouldn't have survived the flight inside the suitcase in the airplane's cargo hold.”
A @TSA officer was shocked to find an orange cat inside a checked bag at @JFKairport after it went through the X-ray unit. Traveler said the cat belonged to someone else in his household. On the bright side, the cat’s out of the bag and safely back home. pic.twitter.com/5XZVJLaZNm
— Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson (@TSA_Northeast) November 22, 2022
An Instagram user who claimed to be the cat's owner, @alexaugustalex, also shared a video of the cat climbing into the bag to prove that it was capable of doing that.
According to the news portal, this was not the first time a live animal was found in a luggage.
In 2018, a traveler was caught with nearly 5,000 leeches in his luggage while in 2021, multiple people were caught trying to bring live birds into the country through JFK.
