Three of the Wackiest Things People Have Tried to Ship
Most of the things people try shipping to South America, Europe, and other parts of the world are fairly innocent — clothing, produce, or building materials — but not all of the time. Here are a few of the Wackiest Things People Have Tried to Ship to South America and other parts of the world.
A Building.
Believe it or not, someone once tried to ship a building. Well, technically they did. Back in 1916, businessman William H. Coltharp was building a new bank, and wanted to use the best bricks around, which were hundreds of miles away. Since you can’t really ship an entire building — or an entire building’s worth of materials — he carefully shipped all 80,000 bricks in multiple shipments of 40 crates weighing less than 50-pounds each. Eventually, the USPS caught on, and and changed their rules, saying that “It is not the intent of the U.S. Postal Service that buildings be shipped through the mail.”
A Ton of Pet Fish.
One of the most common consumer goods business try shipping to South America and from South America is food, as the region’s cuisine is exquisite. Most of the time, these exporters and importers use air freight, as the labor costs and insurance premiums are lower, and the delivery time is much shorter. Taking a page from those shipping to South America, one man once tried to bring 240 fish back via his flight home. The only problem is that instead of doing it via cargo, he filled four large hard-sided suitcases with water and fish.
A Person.
Back in 2003, Charles McKinley hid inside a crate and flew on a major cargo carrier from New York to Dallas, Texas in order to go to his father’s house without having to pay for a ticket. What’s more, he was even able to bring his computer and some clothes along!
Most of the shipping to South America via freight forwarders in Miami or puerta a puerta Venezuelan services is rather innocuous, but as history shows, strange things happen. Who knows what some of the cargo services Miamians use have seen? If you know of any other strange things people have tried shipping to South America or other parts of the world, feel free to share in the comments.
