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[Carrie McLaren <carrie AT stayfreemagazine.org>]

Courtesy of Mat Honan:


Curse of customs and hexcise
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4111443,00.html

the Guardian

Tuesday January 2, 2001


When suspicious customs officials dismantled a wooden monkey statue to
discover 666 grammes of cannabis inside, the quantity alone should have been
enough of a warning.

Their delight turned to terror when the monkey's owner - a witch doctor from
Ghana - was arrested and promptly put a curse on the inanimate beast against
which their rubber gloves were no protection.

Soon the "devil monkey", as it was swiftly dubbed, had been blamed for
scores of injuries at work. Customs officials were wounded by splinters,
tripped over it or had the figure fall on them from shelves.

"It is cursed. It is very dangerous," said Nigel Knott, spokesman for
customs at Dover docks, where the statuette was seized.