Canadian Kai Xu was caught at the Detroit border crossing with 51 live turtles taped to his legs and his groin. His smuggling attempt was botched by both his bulging sweatpants and an extensive surveillance operation by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents, according to The Guardian:

On 5 August, two fish and wildlife agents say they watched Xu disappear behind two semi-trailers in a Detroit parking lot for about 10 minutes before reappearing with, "irregularly shaped bulges under Xu's sweatpants on both legs".

Both Xu, and another man, Lihua Lin, were allegedly attempting to remove the North American pond turtles from the U.S. and into Canada, where they could then go on to fetch as much as $1,300 to $1,500 per turtle on the Asian food and collector markets.

Lin had attempted to fly out of the Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Tuesday to Shanghai with two checked bags full of more than 200 live turtles. Xu was then stopped by the Canadian border patrol when he was driving through to Windsor, Ontario. The Guardian also reported the source of the agents' initial suspicion.

Agents said they were tipped off by a Detroit UPS employee identified only as "Dave", who alerted agents to a seven pound box labeled "live fish keep cool".

Nice work, "Dave." Thanks to you, I won't be able to get the image of a tiny turtle taped to some guy's junk out of my mind tonight.

[Image via AP]