Prison inmates are notorious for the ingenious ways in which they attempt to smuggle contraband into prison. In some cases people will hide the contraband on, or more likely within, their body. In old movies the most popular trick was to bake a cake with a file or a key inside of it. Russian prisoners have come up with a new innovation to sneak in contraband, cats.
At a prison in the Russian Republic of Komi guards apprehended a cat in the process of smuggling banned items into the prison, reports the Moscow Times. The cat was caught climbing a fence with cell phones and chargers taped to its body as it attempted to enter Penal Colony Number One near the city of Syktyvkar. Pictures of the cat can be seen here.
"Two packages were taped to the animal's back," a statement posted on the website of the Republic of Komi Penitentiary Department said. "When the packages were unwrapped, guards found objects prohibited in the penitentiary facility - two cell phones with batteries and chargers."
This was the first known time that a cat has smuggled a cell phone in Russia; although cats have been known to be used to deliver drugs by Russian inmates.
The Moscow Times reported an incident last August of a scheme hatched at prison in South Russia's Rostov region. Inmates leaving the prison would take a cat with them. They would then get in touch with drug dealers who would hide heroin in the collar of the cat before sending the cat back into the prison.
Cats have also been caught smuggling tools and other contraband into a Brazilian prison. The prison guards at Ariparaca prison were trying to figure out which of the detainees was responsible for the cat.
"It's tough to find out who's responsible for the action as the cat doesn't speak," a spokesman for the prison told local newspaper Estado de S.Paulo.
The Moscow Times reported that the fate of the cat caught in Russia was unknown.
The cat could be charged with cat burglary which carries a maximum sentence of nine lives in prison.
