Woman Pleads Guilty To Smuggling Endangered Box Turtles Out Of The US In An Inflatable Kayak

A woman from China has pleaded guilty after being caught trying to smuggle 29 turtles out of Vermont and into Canada by paddling an inflatable kayak across a lake.

I mean… kind of tough to talk your way out of that one.

According to the Associated Press, 41-year-old Wan Yee Ng was arrested back in June at an Airbnb in Vermont with police showing up right as she was about to push off across Lake Wallace in her inflatable kayak with a duffle bag full of eastern box turtles, each turtle packed in a sock.

I think you could hire the best defense attorney in the country and you'd still have no choice but to plead guilty if they caught you with a duffle bag full of turtles. Doing the old, "That's not mine," move that you see people do on Cops when the officer pulls a crack pipe out of their jorts pocket won't work in this instance.

Eastern box turtles are protected in the United States, but can fetch a lot of money on the Chinese black market. (Getty Images)

And why turtles? Perhaps more specifically, those turtles?

Well, eastern box turtles are a protected species, and they can apparently fetch as much as $1,000 a piece on the back market in China. According to a 2017 article from The Los Angeles Times, the turtles are sought after by collectors because of the red and gold markings on their shells which are considered a symbol of status and good fortune.

They're also consumed, with the turtles believed to be "sources of sexual prowess and cures for various ailments."

So… that's where the $1,000 price tag comes from.

Police caught wind of the plan after Canadian authorities notified them two men — one of them believed to be Wan Yee Ng's husband — were seen paddling the inflatable kayak from Canada to the US.

Upon her arrest, police reportedly seized Ng's phone and on it, they found messages indicating that the plan was to sell the turtles in Hong Kong, which happens to be where Ng is from.