Ai Wei Wei’s “Milk Formula” art installation (Choo Chin Nian via Flickr)
An American man in his fifties, boldly going where no white man has gone before, was arrested for smuggling on Christmas Eve after Shenzhen customs officials at the Futian border checkpoint discovered 19 tins of milk powder in his suitcase.
Hah, take that, stereotypes!
The man was crossing the border from Hong Kong to Shenzhen with a large suitcase and a stuffed backpack when the customs officers picked him out of the crowd for inspection, reports EJ Insight.
Lo and behold, inside his bags were 19 tins of baby formula.
They realised upon further inspection that it was his second visit to Shenzhen from Hong Kong that day.
The man told the officials that the milk powder was for his own use (man-baby?) but unfortunately for him they found a notebook detailing his smuggling business, complete with dates, times, locations and how much he was paid. D’oh!
Apparently he made HKD380 for each trip, which he often did twice a day. That seems decidedly not worth it, but according to his records he made over HKD100,000 in December 2013!
This is reportedly the first time that Shenzhen customs officers have arrested a Caucasian person, leaving the man with the dubious honour of breaking a stereotype, a law and a record all in one day.
(According to EJ Insight’s Mark O’Neill, customs officials are more likely to check “blacks”. Do people still say that? Cringe.)
Reader Interactions