Scanners catch bag of bones in Munich

With stories of potential terrorists sneaking through security checkpoints with harmful liquids, security guards failing to pas tests set for them by aviation authorities with bogus passports and boarding passes, it’s good to know that some things do get picked up, even if they don’t lead to any arrests.

Airport security guards in Munich, Germany found some items in an elderly woman’s handbag that merited examination yesterday, and the 62-year old woman and her 63-year old friend were pulled aside and asked to accompany security guards to a private room to discus the reasons why she was carrying human remains in her suitcase.

The two women live in Italy, and were returning home from a trip to Brazil. When questioned about the skull and other bones in her luggage, she replied that she was fulfilling the wishes of her brother who dies 11 years ago in Brazil, to be buried in the soil of his Italian homeland.

When the women showed proper papers from Brazil for the transportation of human remains, they were allowed to continue on to Naples.