A woman in a suitcase is shown in this December 30, 2013 U.S. Customs and Border Protection handout photograph released to Reuters on January 7, 2014.
(Reuters) - A Thai woman has been caught trying to sneak into the United States from Mexico while curled up inside a suitcase in a sport-utility vehicle at a border crossing in Nogales, Arizona, a U.S. border protection official said on Tuesday.
"Rarely do we see something like this. You can imagine the (border) officers' surprise when they came upon this woman crammed inside a suitcase, but there she was," said Edith Serrano, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The woman was discovered on the morning of December 30 in a Honda SUV driven by a 56-year-old Phoenix man, but U.S. Customs and Border Protection first announced the stop on Monday.
The Thai woman, who was in a soft-sided suitcase under a pile of clothes, was turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Serrano, as was the driver of the SUV, which was seized.