Hundreds of reptiles, armour and a cash-filled Barbie: nine oddest items left in airports

IT IS every traveller's worst nightmare – leaving something important behind at the airport.

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But this list, compiled by Flightright, the consumer portal for air passenger compensation, shows that even the most unusual possessions are sometimes forgotten.

1. Suit of armour

One traveller managed to leave behind a full suit of replica armour behind. The suit now takes pride of place at the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Alabama in the US.

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2. Canada Goose

Most tourists go on holiday to have a gander at their surroundings, but one person left a stuffed Canada Goose behind.

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3. Four-year-old child

A 4-year-old girl from Afula was left alone at Ben-Gurion International Airport in Israel in 2008 while her parents and five siblings moved to Paris without her. The child was at first distraught, but later calmed down enough to inform the friendly policeman who bought her some ice-cream that she would only eat food with a Badatz kashrut certification. She was put on a flight to be reunited with her parents in Paris a few hours later.

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4. Missile guidance system from a fighter jet

Sometimes even guidance systems need a nudge in the right direction; one left at a commercial airport in the US was swiftly redirected to the Department of Defence.

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5. Hundreds of reptiles

It like a re-enactment of Samuel L Jackson’s hit movie “Snakes on a plane,” but in January 2014, 1,600 lizards and amphibians being smuggled in cargo containers were found at Oliver Tambo Airport in South Africa when they missed a connecting flight and started to smell, tipping off cargo handlers.

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6. Fragments of a human skull

Flyers in Fort Lauderdale were seriously delayed in 2013 when the clay pots they had picked up on their travels were found to contain fragments of human skull. The flyers claimed they didn't realize that their souvenirs came with bonus body parts inside. The pieces weren't considered a security threat by airport staff, but were instead treated as evidence in a crime scene.

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7. Prosthetic leg

Back in the days when replacement legs were made of wood, the fake limb was left at Sydney airport and never reclaimed by its owner.

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8. Gems

Two of the precious stones which turned up in airports over the years have included a whopping 40.95 carat natural emerald (looking a bit like the gem from “Romancing the Stone” we imagine) and a 5.8 carat diamond left wrapped in a sock.

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9. Barbie filled with cash

Dolls are not such a strange thing to turn up in an airport, but when one little girl was given a second-hand Barbie which had been found at an airport and later popped off the head, her dismay may have been tempered by finding £500 rolled up inside.

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