US tourist faces jail in Turkey for collecting beach 'stones'

US tourist faces jail in Turkey for collecting beach 'stones'

wap.myfoxdc.com

An American tourist who collected stones during a six-day beach holiday with his wife was briefly detained in Turkey and faces trial for attempting to smuggle historical artifacts, he said on Wednesday.
Jason Dement was taken into custody by security officials at Antalya airport, near Turkey's Mediterranean coast, on Sunday because two of the pieces inside a bag of stones appeared to be artifacts. On Monday, a court released him from custody but barred him from leaving Turkey.

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Seems pretty crazy.. but it would pay to check out the laws of any place you visit. This is a real mess for the tourist!

Don't know if it a skin the tourist plot, or overzealous authorities.

Granted, no nation wants antiquities stolen either. From the description, it sounds like it needs to be dropped and the man sent home to Germany..Bet he won't go back to Turkey for a vacation though!

wap.myfoxdc.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by pravdaseeker


That'll teach me not to collect stones from another country. You know what, I think I'm just gonna stay home. I thought Turkey was one of the better Middle Eastern countries?

Yea got to be careful what you take out and bring into countries these days. Here in NZ we have very strict biosecurity restrictions because we are so isolated fromt the rest of the world. Always cracks me up watching some angry tourist at the airport getting in a huff because they are being fined for not declaring an apple or something.

reply to post by pravdaseeker


Seems weird but as you said, if you go somewhere learn the rules. This reminds me of a guy that I work with. He is in the United States but he is from India. About a year ago he got into a little trouble because he was hunting rabbits outside of his apartment building. Apparently nothing unusual to him but some neighbors were quite disturbed to find him killing a rabbit in the lawn. He just didnt know.

reply to post by pravdaseeker


Of course there is the other possibility. He deliberately tried to sneak two artifacts out in a bag of sea stones. We have many such problems in Australia with 'Tourists' trying to sneak out our wildlife.

"The snake must have snuck into my suitcase when I wasn't looking, honest!"

Give the authorities a little credit, to my mind a sea stone and an artifact are two very different things. If I was a tourist, taking something out that I was not sure of, I would ask at the border if it was OK and if not, apologize and hand them back!

P

reply to post by pravdaseeker

I have been to Turkey. If you don't have a printed receipt, you don't try to take it home.

Originally posted by madmac5150
reply to post by pravdaseeker

 

I have been to Turkey. If you don't have a printed receipt, you don't try to take it home.

That said, it's got to be spectacularly easy to get a printed receipt. Bribe a store-owner and voila! Obviously the tourist just broke a rule he wasn't aware of.

Originally posted by homeslice
Yea got to be careful what you take out and bring into countries these days. Here in NZ we have very strict biosecurity restrictions because we are so isolated fromt the rest of the world. Always cracks me up watching some angry tourist at the airport getting in a huff because they are being fined for not declaring an apple or something.

Haha I've seen that on Border Security shows, and I swear it's a set up.

The stewardess on the plane gave an old lady an apple with her meal, and she didn't eat it but put it in her bag.

$200+ fine.

I can understand when you have idiots bringing in bags and bags of undeclared herbs from some Asian country, that are full of insects and larvae. We have much the same here in Aus.

Hell, even driving from WA to Adelaide once we were stopped and checked at quarantine for any fruit.

But taking stones from a beach.. that's madness. it's washed up from the ocean or has been part of an unkept part of the land.

And especially to be locked up for it..

Ah well, it's Istanbul, not Constantinople.. now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople.. it's been a long time down in Constantinople... Why did Constantinople get the works? It's no bodies business but the Turks..

Originally posted by underduck
reply to post by pravdaseeker

 

Seems weird but as you said, if you go somewhere learn the rules. This reminds me of a guy that I work with. He is in the United States but he is from India. About a year ago he got into a little trouble because he was hunting rabbits outside of his apartment building. Apparently nothing unusual to him but some neighbors were quite disturbed to find him killing a rabbit in the lawn. He just didnt know.

Ehh? How many wild rabbits are there in suburban areas with apartment buildings?

Reminds me of these absolute scumbags I knew years ago, saw an old lady let a pet rabbit go in a park -- they claimed she let it go to get rid of it.. they set the dog on it.

effin scumbags..

reply to post by winofiend


We have quite a few rabbits running around here. Enough that if you put a vegetable garden in your yard you have to put chicken wire around it. In his defense these were certainly not anyones pet like the scumbags you were talking about. These rabbits wouldnt get caught by a dog. Mine tries every day and she never gets close.

He collected 3 stones from the beach (!) and 2 of them are historical artifact.
what a beach, what a chance 2 of 3

"But you have a proof! You 'saw' a beach picture. Are you kidding?"
Which is proof? 2 historical artifacts or a 'this is the beach' picture ?

Explain his chance . Billions of stones. He collected 3 and 2 of them are historical.

And, which county permits you to collect historical artifacts and carry them outside the country.
Tell me, I ll have my ticket within minutes.


And dont stop, send your money to him. He needs money, either comes from your or comes from historical artifacts. No matter!