Devious carrier pigeon caught trying to smuggle cellphone parts into prison
By Laura June 
posted Apr 16th 2009 12:32AM
posted Apr 16th 2009 12:32AM
Back in late March and early April, when we first heard the terrifying tale of two shifty, hapless carrier pigeons intercepted while attempting to smuggle cellphone parts to inmates in a high-security Brazilian prison, we thought it was merely an isolated incident. Well, now that another pigeon has been caught -- this time outside a Colombian prison with a tiny suitcase full of cellphone components strapped to its back -- we have to face the truth: carrier pigeons are probably evil by nature. The Colombian authorities say that the pigeons are likely being raised inside the prison, then sent to the outside to collect the contraband handsets before doing what pigeons do best -- returning home. The officials also admit they are relatively powerless to combat the problem, though the intercepted bird is now imprisoned at a local animal shelter. So... how long until a different carrier pigeon is intercepted trying to sneak a teensy KRZR into the incarcerated, winged criminal? 
haha that's AWESOME
They might actually get a Palm Pre before everyone else.
Not if they invested in some good old fashioned falconry. Problem resolved.
DAMN YOU MICHAEL SCOFIELD!!
It must have been carrying a jailbroken iPhone.
Sorry, bad, I know.
guess what... this is BS
a healthy pigeon cannot fly with the weight of a cellphone attached to its body. just saw the test on colombian tv, it is not possible.
Ummmm, I've seen pigeons fly away with half slices of thick pizza before...my cellphone doesn't weigh any more than that.
Also, even if they couldn't carry ALL the parts, did you notice the part where it said cellphone 'components'? I.e. get 3 pigeons to carry different parts of one cellphone, then put it together when they arrive - problem solved.
carrier pigeons are extinct
you cannot train normal pigeons to fly to specific location
@sanriver, what part of cellphone ->parts
"carrier pigeons are extinct", who the hell told you that? There are enthusiast that breed and hold them in every damn country in the world (much to the chagrin of their neighbours).
Words fail me. This is Onion-quality bizarre! Mythbusters needs to test this one out stat!
What is there to test? Birds can fly. Birds are strong enough to carry parts of a cell phone.
Myth busted.
You mean myth confirmed then. If birds can do this, then it isn't a myth and thus is not busted.
Pigeons are notoriously anti-penal system.
so just keep an eye out for the big fat pidgeon that has to carry the battery and never let that one reach the destination. Problem solved!
"They are being raised inside the prison" They might try stopping them from being raised in prison, maybe?
My thoughts exactly :)
If grocery stores can't seem to stop them, I doubt a prison can.
@ Bomchickawahwah:
If the grocery stores in your area set the standard for what your prisons are capable of, I'd move.
@ Zapp...hahahaha i live in the city. We export our criminals to small towns across the state. Haha
Two things.
One this is common in all prisons. Two do you guys check your story, it isn't Columbia. It is Colombia. PLEASE Check your spelling, it is hard for me to understand how this is a mistake this day in age.
Thank you.
Muphry's Law
muphry's? was that intentional?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law
You mean how people still make this mistake, not how it is a mistake.
What is this "day in age"? I found one reference stating that an age could be considered to be a billion years. So what you've said is equivalent to "this 1/(365 days * billion years)". Is that what you meant? This day considered in units of ages?
Or could it be you meant to say this "day and age"? Sir, for the benefit of everyone (but most significantly yourself) please put down the soon-to-be-ballistic mineral samples, and return to your house made of a certain transparent amorphous substance. Thank you.
I can see some troubles flying towards them.
This really went over their head
And that isn't the beak of the problem yet!
I say it's the fowl spelling they used in the story that is confusing people.
You guys are so punny!
Looks like the bird man of Alcatraz was a few decades ahead of his time
Certainly no Monty Python fans or they would´ve used swallows.
African or European?
Supposing two pigeons carried it together?
Came for the Monty Python reference, left happy.
It's not a question of where he grips it! It's a simple question of weight ratios! A five ounce bird could not carry a one pound coconut.
The word Colombia has to be one of the most commonly mispelled words. The spell checkers don't pick it up because Columbia does exist as a word. Annoys me also when I see it mispelled.
I hope the prisoners aren't locked into contract with their CARRIERS!!!!
...sorry...
Damn. I totally just doubled up that terrible pun on accident...
...*locked* in...
...they are prisoners...
:-/
i hate myself so much.
No dude, what are you talking about, that was awesome! Almost spilled my coffee reading this :D
yea same here. best puns on the page, especially the accidental one
Want to know what's next? I'll tell you what's next -- ill-tempered pigeons with frickin laser beams on their heads. Then these so called "officials" can tell me they're powerless.
Or how about this -- block network coverage in the jail!!!
So how are the guards going to call for help when the inmates will inevitably take over?
I doubt prison guards use cellular phones for that sort of thing. I mean, you see an angry prisoner with a shiv and you think, "oh shit! slide to unlock! slide to unlock!"... yeah, no.
that's the purpose of jailbreak!!!
ColOmbia, not Columbia... When will people learn that...
You're ALL wrong!
It's "COLÓMBIA!!!!"
and if you knew any better capital letters don't have tildes on them, so its COLOMBIA, and Colómbia.
I used to think that too, but:
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acentuación_de_las_mayúsculas
@ruben:
1) it is not a tilde (õ), it is an acute accent (ó)
2) capital letters may carry graphic signs
ohh the irony
was supposed to be a reply to messiah. shit, murphy's law strikes again
Classic. This truly made my day.
And i believe thats an SLVR L7 or L6
Maybe the inmates were just trying to order take out?
Wow! Will it get a life sentence?
This, among a hundred other reasons, is a perfect reason why prison needs to be prison - as in solitary confinement with 24 lock down in a small room. No pets, no hobbies. Nothing.
By turning a non violent person into a crazyed maniac when he get out will help society?
Oh please shut up. Seriously. Prison is punishment, not rehabilitation. And why would you ever think someone in prison is non-violent?
You think letting them watch TV and continue to perform crimes on the inside is going to help them?
Well, maybe if prisons were actually for rehabilitation instead of just locking people up and giving them nothing to do but lift weights and come up with new crimes things might be different.
listen cassini, if you put everyone in solitary confinement, they will come out twice as crazy as they might have been BEFORE they got locked up. Besides whether they are criminals or not, they're still human beings and they [should] have rights. Prisons should be a place of rehabilitation instead of a breeding ground for cold-hearted criminals. Shit half the people in prison are probably innocent, if you've ever been in trouble with the law (whether you're actually guilty or not), you'd know its expensive to get a good defense. Most people in jail probably had public defenders, in the hood they call em P Diddys cuz all they say is take that take that.
I'm sure Cassini is joking/trolling.
carrier pigeons are extinct just cuz it's a pigeon carrying something doesn't make it a carrier pigeons.
you are thinking of passenger pigeons there Mr Audubon.
Hmm, let's think, how do we combat birds flying into a prison?
Uh, guys with shotguns?
Good luck shooting down every bird that flying over the prisons.
In the first place, you will not succeed.
In the second, PETA will go for you. And with good reason, for once.
Here's the problem with this story, to get it to fly back it would first have to be smuggled out of prison, and when you are capable to do that why not just exchange a phone at that point instead of a bird?
Another issue: how are you going to keep a cellphone charged in a colombian/brazilian prison? they don't have iphone charging docks like our western prisons you know.
Oh and the classical way to ward of pigeons used all over the world is netting, cheap plastic netting to keep them away.
And another way to keep birds away is cut-outs of birds of prey and/or speakers that make sounds of birds of prey on a regular basis, normal birds instinctively know to get the hell outta dodge when one of those appears to be near.
You'd think for being raised by ...alright seeming and rational......people they would have turned out better..... maybe they were just bad eggs to start.
Why not just stick some kind of tracking device, you know, ONTO the pigeon, then release it and see where it goes? It'd lead straight to the perps!
Oh no wait, that's too sensible.
Birds return to the roost not to a person, also in those countries cells consist of large rooms/areas with tens of people, it's not all neat and organised like in the west, they don't have the funds to keep the large number of prisoners in a nice controlled separate cell each, nor do they seem sense in doing so.
Those large prisons in these places are pretty chaotic and disorganised in many ways.
At least from what I've seen in various documentaries about them, and in footage from the news about riots in them.
*yawn*
We demand change! Para Colombia!
Now damn why didn't I think of that....
Michael Scofield: Now damn why didn't I think of that....
Nobody ever thinks of letting the bird make its delivery to take advantage of the discovery. Why not replace the device with one they can listen in on, track the prisoner who received it, and use the mic to listen in on transactions inside the prison. Dopes! They have an incredible opportunity here.
I said this about 3 hours ago...
The should have stashed the phone in their vag like my girlfriend did...
Seeing as how most prisoners carry sub machine guns, grenades, knives in prisons down there I doubt they'll be able to do much, or care, to stop this. They can probably just pay a guard to get a phone. Unless thats the ONE thing they really try to stop for some reason.
Any seen the locked up abroads when they were in Venezuela getting busted smuggling coke? Granted that isn't current times. But I doubt much has changed.
Is that the bird's mugshot?
where there is a will the a way?
would it not have made sense to get part for something that would help you break out?
ROLFMAO
Man...i'm proud of being "COLOMBIAN"
ok so can somebody please explain to me how this works? I can understand training a pigeon to fly somewhere and come back, but how exactly do you train a bird to find cellphone parts and bring them back? or is there like another guy on the outside putting the stuff on the birds back, i need more explanation!!
I truly wish you were joking... :::shakes head:::
LOL! I'm Colombian, I live in Colombia and here it's well known of the inventive of criminals... but that pigeon story was the cherry on top of the cake of my day. And for someone who said that the inmates aren't locked (no pun intended) into contract with carriers, well let me tell you that the common here is pre-paid. More than 65% of people who uses cell phones are pre-paid. And now, it struck me why are pets permitted in prisons? hmmm
I hope it pleads the fizziiiiiiifth
This is just another example of Racism. Had this pigeon been white, it would be a "free bird". Instead this Black pigeon was probably targeted - maybe even framed .. thrown into prison for no reason, all because of its feather color. These Colombians should be ashamed of themselves ! B)
ha ha that was the best one today for me
you are thinking of passenger pigeons there Mr. Audubon.
I, for one, welcome our new pigeon overlords.
loser
guess what... this is BS
a healthy pigeon cannot fly with the weight of a cellphone attached to its body. just saw the test on colombian tv, it is not possible.
This statement was refuted in the repost of this comment in the corrected reply thread by schmitty338