--- title: Man Tries to Disguise Tortoises as Cakes in Airport description: A passenger tried to smuggle three tortoises through airport customs, disguised as cakes. canonical: https://time.com/5553622/tortoise-cakes-airport/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-03-18T16:06:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:58:10.333Z og:title: Man Tries to Disguise Tortoises as Cakes in Airport og:description: A man was apprehended trying to smuggle tortoises through customs as cakes og:url: https://time.com/5553622/tortoise-cakes-airport/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45a09bd7560d223d/698946d5b21a9c8b4a500485/tortoise-cakes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: tortoise-cakes og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Man Tries to Disguise Tortoises as Cakes in Airport twitter:description: A man was apprehended trying to smuggle tortoises through customs as cakes twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45a09bd7560d223d/698946d5b21a9c8b4a500485/tortoise-cakes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Man Tries to Convince People That Tortoises Are Delicious Cakes for Smuggling Purposes. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Mar 18, 2019 4:06 PM UTC  Hauptzollamt Potsdam  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Mar 18, 2019 4:06 PM UTC [Pastries](http://www.extracrispy.com/food/2368/st-josephs-day-pastries-let-you-get-loose-during-lent) come in all shapes and sizes. But perhaps presuming that a set of live [tortoises](http://time.com/3754279/mating-tortoises-national-geographic/) would pass inspection as confections of the cake variety was pushing expectations a bit too far. That’s certainly the case for one man, who [was apprehended](https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/tortoise-smuggling-cakes-berlin-schonefeld-airport-pastry-box-a8828051.html) earlier in March in Berlin’s Schönefeld airport after customs officials discovered he was carrying three tortoises placed in a cake box with clear plastic windows, their distinctive shells obvious to any onlooker. According to translations of the [press release](https://www.presseportal.de/blaulicht/pm/121237/4217423) shared by the airport, the passenger — a 69-year-old German national traveling back from Cairo Egypt — attempted to convince airport security officials the tortoises were highly realistic-looking “chocolate” tortoises after they stopped him moving through the “nothing to declare” line. His contention turned out to be quite a lie: “When opening the packaging, the customs officers found instead of sweets, however, three living specimens of Moroccan tortoise,” the release notes. Moroccan tortoises are an [endangered species](http://time.com/5347260/endangered-species-act-reform/), and were promptly confiscated by airport security and placed “in the care of a border veterinarian,” according to the airport. Animal trafficking is a serious crime, and if convicted, the passenger could be looking at a fine of as much as €50,000 — over $55,000 — or a five-year prison sentence. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5553622/tortoise-cakes-airport/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5553622/tortoise-cakes-airport/"},"headline":"Man Tries to Convince People That Tortoises Are Delicious Cakes for Smuggling Purposes. 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