Man caught attempting to smuggle living turtle through airport security down the front of his pants
TSA
(NEWARK, NJ) — A Pennsylvania man attempting to go through airport security was discovered to have been hiding a living turtle in his pants as he tried to sneak it onto the plane, authorities said.
The incident took place last Friday at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey when a man from Pennsylvania was going through a body scan in the security area when an alarm was triggered “in the area of the man’s groin,” according to a statement from the Transportation Security Administration on Tuesday.
“A TSA officer administered a pat-down of the area of the man’s body where the alarm was triggered and in doing so, determined that there was something concealed in the area of the man’s groin,” TSA officials said regarding the incident. “When asked if there was something hidden in his pants, the man, a resident of East Stroudsburg, Pa., reached down the front of his pants and pulled out a live turtle that was wrapped in a small blue towel.”
The turtle was estimated to be approximately five inches in length and identified to be a red-ear slider turtle – one of the most popular breeds of pet turtle in the United States – by the man once he was caught by airport security.
“Port Authority Police questioned the man, took possession of the turtle and indicated that they would contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and local animal control officials,” the TSA said.
The unnamed man missed his flight and was escorted out of the checkpoint by police.
Thomas Carter, TSA’s Federal Security Director for New Jersey, said that this is the first time he has ever seen someone trying to smuggle a live animal down the front on their pants as they attempted to go through security.
“I commend our officer who conducted the pat-down in a very professional manner in an effort to resolve the alarm,” said Carter. “We have seen travelers try to conceal knives and other weapons on their person, in their shoes and in their luggage, however I believe this is the first time we have come across someone who was concealing a live animal down the front of his pants. As best as we could tell, the turtle was not harmed by the man’s actions.”
Police are searching for a man who has now been missing for almost two weeks after visiting a national park in Colorado, authorities said. (National Park Service)
(MONTROSE COUNTY, CO) — Police are desperately searching for a man who has now been missing for almost two weeks after visiting a national park in Colorado, authorities said.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park staff and the Montrose County Sheriff’s Office have now asked for the public’s assistance in locating a missing person named as Jordan Marsters, a 31-year-old man from Denver, Colorado, who went missing nearly two weeks ago and hasn’t been hear from since Feb. 13, according to a statement from the National Park Service on Monday.
“Marsters was traveling through Grand Junction on February 11 and in Montrose on February 12,” officials said. “His last known locations were in Montrose on February 12 and 13 and at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park on the morning of February 13 at approximately 7:20 am.”
Marsters is described as 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighing approximately 140 lbs. with blonde hair and blue eyes. last seen wearing a tan jacket and black hoodie and police say he was driving a white Kia Fuente rental car with Texas license plates “TXH4349.”
It is unclear how long Marsters was supposed to be traveling through the national park for but authorities have asked for anybody with information about his whereabouts or who was in contact with him on the days leading up to Feb.13, to contact Black Canyon National of the Gunnison National Park immediately.
(LAS VEGAS) — The man who rented the Cybertruck that exploded outside of the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas on New Year’s Day has been identified as U.S. Army Master Sgt. Matthew Livelsberger, 37, a Special Operations soldier who was on leave from his base in Germany, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Although investigators are still examining DNA evidence of the person found in the truck, Las Vegas Metro Police Department Sherriff Kevin McMahill told reporters at a news conference that Livelsberger’s identification and credit cards were found at the scene. The coroner’s office said the person in the truck sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head and a handgun was found at his feet.
Seven people suffered minor injuries when the truck, which was filled with fireworks-style mortars and gas canisters, exploded around 8:40 a.m. PT. Investigators believe the explosion was intentional, but hadn’t determined a motive, authorities said in the news conference.
As they continue their investigation into the blast, a profile of Livelsberger is emerging from the Army and people who knew him.
Livelsberger’s wife told investigators her husband had been out of their Colorado Springs, Colorado, residence since around Christmas after a dispute over allegations of infidelity and said he would not hurt anyone, an official who had been briefed on the investigation told ABC News.
Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas Division, told reporters it was too early to speculate about any politicial connections behind the attack. Livelsberger allegedly supported President-elect Donald Trump, the official who had been briefed on the investigation said.
“It’s not lost on us that it’s in front of the Trump building, that it’s a Tesla vehicle, but we don’t have information at this point that definitively tells us or suggest it was because of this particular ideology or any of the reasoning behind it,” Evans said.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a major Trump donor who has been advising the president-elect, has been assisting in the investigation, authorities said, including providing police with video of Livelsberger at Tesla charging stations along his route from Colorado to Las Vegas.
Livelsberger enlisted in the Army as a Special Forces candidate and served on active duty from January 2006 to March 2011, then joined the National Guard that month and served until July 2012, followed by a stint in the Army Reserve from July to December 2012, according to the spokesperson. He went back on active duty in December 2012 as a Special Operations soldier, the spokesperson said.
He spent time at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, and was deployed to Afghanistan three times, according to the spokesperson.
Livelsberger was a Green Beret operations sergeant who was stationed mostly at Fort Carson, Colorado, near Colorado Springs, and in Germany, according to McMahill.
He was on approved leave from the Army at the time of his death, according to U.S. Army Special Operations Command.
Livelsberger received numerous accomodations throughout his military carer including a Bronze Star with a “V” device for valor, and four additional Bronze Stars, according to the Army spokesperson.
“USASOC is in full cooperation with federal and state law enforcement agencies, but as a matter of policy, will not comment on ongoing investigations,” the spokesperson said.
Livelsberger rented the Cybertruck in Denver on Dec. 28 using the car-sharing app Turo, the same app used to rent a truck by the suspect in the New Orleans attack on New Year’s Day, though investigators said they have not established any links between the two attacks.
Livelsberger told the truck’s owner that he was going camping at the Grand Canyon, the official said.
The subject purchased two semiautomatic firearms legally on Monday, Kenny Cooper, the assistant special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, San Francisco Field Division, told reporters.
Astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore, Sunita “Suni” Williams and Nick Hague, who are on the International Space Station, discuss the challenges of sending humans to Mars. (ABC News)
(WASHINGTON) — It’s been a lofty goal America’s leaders have set their sights on for generations, and President Donald Trump kicked off his second term by restating his goal of reaching the Red Planet.
“And we will pursue our Manifest Destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars,” he said during his Jan. 20 inauguration speech.
Elon Musk — the CEO of space technology company SpaceX — has the president’s ear this time around, suggesting we’ll see an even harder push to make the 140 million-mile journey to Mars.
“Can you imagine how awesome it will be to have American astronauts plant the flag on another planet for the first time?” Musk said on Inauguration Day.
It will take a herculean effort from NASA to make a mission to Mars a reality, experts told ABC News. It must build on the Artemis program — which Trump established in 2017 to build a human presence on the moon — to get people setting foot on Mars, according to NASA.
“NASA’s current moon to Mars exploration approach calls for using missions on and around the moon under the Artemis campaign to prepare for future human missions to Mars,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement sent to ABC News. “We’re looking forward to hearing more about the Trump administration’s plans for our agency and expanding exploration for the benefit of all, including sending American astronauts on the first human mission to the Red Planet.”
However, the mission can’t simply launch whenever the crews and technology are ready. Scott Hubbard ran the agency’s Mars program from 2000 to 2001, served as director of its Ames Research Center for 4 years and was in executive management at NASA for 20 years.
He noted that there are specific windows for when to launch the mission. When Earth and Mars align in their orbits around the sun, the distance and energy required for a spacecraft to travel to Mars are minimized.
The next window is just a year and a half away.
“Even with the most powerful rockets we have, there is a window of 20 days every 26 months,” he told ABC News. “And that’s it. I mean, it’s literally be there or forget about it.”
Whenever the mission takes off, it will be an incredibly challenging endurance test filled with problems never encountered before, requiring a crew of astronauts daring enough to make the journey.
Astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams have been getting a taste of that. The pair have been in space for nine months, with their planned 8-day trip to the International Space Station (ISS) getting an unexpected extension for safety reasons.
“So once we transitioned from not returning on our spacecraft, we transitioned into being a crew member, on the international crew, members on the International Space Station,” Wilmore told ABC News. “And that’s what we’ve been doing since we’ve been here.”
Williams noted that this kind of flexibility will be key for anyone hoping to go to Mars.
“I’d say nothing goes as planned and be ready for that,” she told ABC News. “You know, a little challenge, a little adversity brings out the best in us.”
This experience may one day be useful to astronauts making the 7-month journey to Mars, their fellow ISS crew member Nick Hague told ABC News.
“You know, being up here, it’s not about a singular mission. It’s not about a singular trip to Mars,” he said. “We’re part of a long legacy of exploration, of human exploration, of space, and we’re doing our little part to try to advance that.”
The ISS crew is researching some of the logistical challenges that the long journey to Mars would present.
“How do we sustain ourselves? We can’t pack all the resources we need on a trip to Mars and sustain a long mission,” Hague said. “So we’re going to have to figure out how to grow the food that we’re going to need.”
The astronauts would also need to be able to replace equipment that breaks during the trip.
“So you cannot take every single spare part with you,” Wilmore said. “You’re going to have to have some way of additive manufacturing — 3D printing.”
The trip would also expose astronauts to conditions that could lead to multiple health problems, including the potential risk of cancer and mental health issues, along with bone and muscle problems, space physiologist Rihana Bokhari told ABC News. Getting messages back to Earth could take a while as well, she noted.
“That communication delay is going to be quite large when it comes to Mars, about 20 minutes each way at the furthest,” she said.
Setting foot on the fourth planet from the sun may be the goal, but it’s only half the battle. A round-trip mission would take at least three years.
“In addition to transportation, you need a habitat. We have not yet built a place for astronauts to live for the 6 or 7 months it would take to get there and have a really reliable life support,” Hubbard, the former NASA Mars lead, told ABC News.
Hubbard believes NASA should be thinking longer term for its first manned mission to Mars.
“Not all opportunities are equal,” he said. “And if you were to look out to 2033, you see an opportunity that comes only once every 15 years. You can get the most mass to Mars of any of these other 20-day windows.”
Considering the length of time for the window from now, Hubbard noted that the Apollo missions followed a similar timeline — from the first tests in 1961 to Apollo 11 landing on the moon in 1969.
“And it’s going to take not just technological advancement but political will,” he said. “It’s going to take people to see that this is part of what we do as human beings.”
