Jeweled Beetle Still Just A Bug At Texas Border

McALLEN, Texas (AP) – At the U.S.-Mexico border a bug decorated with jewels is still a bug.

It may be restrained and openly displayed – as in anchored and chained to a woman’s sweater – but it is still classified as a pest.

Customs officials say the woman arriving from Mexico on Jan. 12,

at the Gateway International Bridge in Brownsville, declared the live beetle brooch to inspectors, but the conclusion was still bug.

The decorative accessory, lacking the appropriate paperwork to import a live pest, was confiscated by U.S. inspectors and sent off to a lab.

See video of the jeweled bugs here.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)