Hieroglyphic vandalism, airport nudity and penguin-napping...
The takeaway: You don’t want to end up on a list like this.
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Graffiti gone (horribly) wrong
It's one thing to carve your initials into an old oak tree or park bench, but it's quite another to decorate a 3,500-year-old archaeological treasure with your full name (if not your mailing address). In the end, it was this complete lack of guile that may elicit some sympathy for Chinese teenager Ding Jinhao, who defaced Egypt's Temple of Luxor a few years back with Mandarin characters proclaiming he had visited the site (pictured).
This banal vandalism was exposed a few months ago by a Chinese blogger, who posted photos that prompted an international outcry. Fifteen-year-old Jinhao was soon rooted out — hackers even attacked his former school’s website — eventually drawing an apology, and an appeal for mercy, from the teen's parents.
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You know you had a night to remember - if only you could - when you wake up to find a penguin in your pad. According to various media and police accounts, this is exactly what happened to a pair of young Welshmen who, along with a local Aussie teen, broke into Australia's Queensland Sea World, swam with dolphins, discharged a fire extinguisher in the shark tank, and kidnapped poor Dirk (the penguin, pictured).
To make matters worse, the panicked (and presumably hungover) pair proceeded to release Dirk into a canal (from which he was rescued, unharmed). The visitors ended up with a fine, the Aussie with probation, but it could have been much worse: they could have gone swimming with the sharks.
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Putting the strip in search
Brennan was soon arrested and charged with exposing himself in public, which has spawned a lengthy legal battle focusing on air travellers' First Amendment rights. The 2011 case of a 36-year-old woman flying from London to Bermuda may not have been quite so principled: when officials asked to search her luggage, she disrobed and reportedly replied, “If you want to see me naked, you can do it right f---ing here.”
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Sexy scandal in Dubai
A
British woman and an Irish man trysting in Dubai would have done well
to 'get a room.' Getting it on in the back seat of a taxi after a
10-hour drinking binge might not be a big deal in London or Dublin, but
the gratuitous public display put on by Rebecca Blake and Conor
McRedmond in the strict Islamic state landed them in jail, and then in
court, where they faced up to three years in prison. After a lengthy
legal battle they (ahem) got off with three months behind bars.
Straight outta Heathrow
With apologies to American rapper Snoop Dogg, here's an account of his posse's 2006 rampage through London's Heathrow airport: Some of Snoop's crew didn't have the right tickets / So they couldn't get into a V.I.P. lounge / They told the lounge staffers where they could all stick it / And proceeded to toss several policemen around / Smashed a bunch of glass cases, busted up the duty-free / But the cops they came back, threw the crew in the slammer / What happened to Snoop? He was barred from the country / And hit with a fine... kind of like MC Hammer.
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In January, Icelandair reported that passengers and crew had to restrain a 46-year-old man on a flight from Reykjavik to New York because he was drunk, striking people, screaming profanities and spitting. Nothing new so far, at least when it comes to air rage.
Indeed, stories abound of unruly fliers having their hands bound mid-flight - but this may be the first time the malcontent in question was duct taped to his seat and gagged*. Videos and photos of the cocooned nutcase soon surfaced online, and while the airline wouldn't confirm exactly what happened, it's hard to argue with the evidence that was caught on, er, tape...
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French roast
You know your national reputation is slipping when your government releases an open letter lambasting its own citizens' overseas shenanigans. For example: The 22,000 French nationals living and working in Australia received a stern rebuke from consul-general Eric Berti a few months ago after a spate of shoplifting (apparently known as 'French shopping' Down Under), and an incident in which a 20-something Frenchman - described by police as a 'disrespectful knucklehead' - was caught climbing and damaging a cenotaph in Sydney's Martin Place (pictured).
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Naked ambitions
On
one hand, it's difficult to condone the behaviour of an American
tourist who, in 2009, stripped naked and strolled through the streets of
Jerusalem, at one point stopping to jump on the hood of a car
(pictured) and giving new meaning to the term 'rear-ender.'
On
the other, one has to admire the moxy of a 19-year-old Aussie who bet a
friend he could travel through Europe naked. 'I simply like to be
naked,' the traveller apparently explained - and he was good at it, too,
visiting 10 cities in the buff before being apprehended by police in
Munich after a chase through the German city's main train station.
Mid-flight striptease
Stripping
and air rage, together at last. According to 2011 media reports, a
London-bound BMI flight was forced to return to Russia's Domodedovo
Airport shortly after takeoff after a drunk female passenger began
stealing other passengers’ eyeglasses and performing an erotic dance.
There
was no word on whether the eye-wear theft and attempted striptease were
somehow connected — officials speculated that her behaviour was the
result of a 'low tolerance for alcohol' — how racy the performance was,
or whether passengers were offended or delighted by her show. All we can
really draw from this, then, is that some passengers will do anything
for complementary access to the snack cart.
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