James Brown famously sang "I've got ants in my pants and I need to dance." And what kind of dance, one wonders, would he have improvised if it had been geckos in his pants instead?

Gecko smuggler.
SCANPIX

Forrest Gump may have had our animal smuggler in mind when he said stupid is as stupid does.

Like the man who was stopped by Norwegian customs officials after he arrived from Denmark by ferry. Not only did he have geckos strapped to his legs under his pants, he had snakes in socks secreted around his body. Oh, and there was the tarantula in his bag. Yes, he was traveling with a large hairy arachnid in his bag.

According to Reuters:

OSLO, Oct 26 (Reuters) - A man was caught by Norwegian customs carrying a tarantula in his bag, and a further 14 royal pythons and 10 albino leopard geckos taped to his body, media reported on Monday.

The 22-year-old Norwegian was stopped in a routine check by Kristiansand customs after arriving on a ferry from Denmark, newspaper Faedrelandsvennen reported.

Customs found the tarantula, before deciding to give him a full body search that revealed 14 stockings — one for each snake — taped around his torso, top selling tabloid VG said.

Reptile smuggling is not uncommon in Norway, which prohibits people holding many reptile species as pets, but office manager Helge Breilid at Kristiansand customs was quoted by VG as saying customs officers had been "horrified" by Sunday's catch.

 

"Customs officers quickly realised the man was smuggling animals, because his whole body was in constant motion," Breilid told VG.

When the man dropped his pants, the officers found 10 cans taped to his legs, each containing a lizard, he said.

A Norwegian language website has the story. Unfortunately, Babelfish doesn't do Norwegian to English translations but the photos and video give non Norwegian speakers plenty to work with.