Jersey Boy
This story doesn’t technically meet the definition of a “dumb criminal.” It’s more of a “smart customs agent” story, but it’s hard to make a humor blog out of crafty airport employees. The material ain’t exactly a seller’s market.
NICOSIA (Reuters) - An England football shirt gave away a Senegalese man attempting to enter Cyprus on a forged French passport, police on the Mediterranean island said on Monday.
Suspicions were aroused when the man appeared at a checkpoint supervising crossings from the Turkish Cypriot north to the Greek Cypriot south of the divided island, wearing the England shirt and presenting a French passport.
“Being a football fan, the officer found it highly unlikely that a Frenchman would want to wear an England football jersey,” a police source said.
“That was his first suspicion prior to the proper check on the passport, which turned out to be a fake,” said the source.
The 22-year-old man, who has not been charged, was remanded in custody for six days pending further inquiries.
A Frenchman wearing an English “football” jersey? What blasphemy! He’s lucky Jacques Chirac didn’t stand him up in front of a firing squad.
Besides, who did he think he was fooling? France’s soccer team has a white flag on it.
Of course, this kind of thing would never arouse a U.S. customs agent’s suspicions. I mean, I grew up in New Orleans and if I wasn’t spotted wearing a Saints jersey, I got bumped up to first class.
