Cracking Down On Chocolate Egg Smuggling

The United States is cracking down on smuggled chocolate eggs, seriously! A Winnipeg woman recently stopped at the U.S. border for a random search of her car. That’s when a customs official discovered the contraband, a Kinder Surprise Egg. ‘Street value’ in Canada is$2 for a two-pack of the eggs.

What makes the little Italian-made candies not ok to bring across the border? Each egg has a toy inside and is a choking hazard. The woman’s chocolate egg was seized and she was warned that she could have faced a $300 fine for bringing the egg into the states.

She thought it was crazy, which I agree.  This is how serious our government is taking these rogue candy eggs; they sent the woman a seven-page letter formally asking her to authorize the egg’s destruction. And stating that if she contested it’s destruction she would have to pay $250 for storage of the egg.

I’m fairly certain you could file this whole fiasco under ridiculous. But, apparently the government has seized over 25,000 Kinder eggs in the past year.

Read the story from Fox News.

I wasn’t even sure what a Kinder Egg when I first read the story, but after a little sleuthing on Google images I was shocked to find that I’ve actually eaten them! They are little foil-wrapped chocolate eggs, and each one has a little toy inside. (Very similar to what used to be in Cracker-Jacks) One of my friends brought some back for me from Europe a couple of years ago and I partook in the forbidden treats.

If only I knew the trouble I could have been in.

On a related note, if you plan on traveling out of the country and don’t want to get busted for accidentally bringing back anything illegal, you can get info and full lists of banned items HERE.