‘Hiss-toric’: New York Airport officials find cat curled up inside suitcase

A bizarre item was recently found packed into a passenger's checked luggage at an airport in New York City, astonishing security personnel. A security guard at John F. Kennedy International Airport spotted some orange hair poking out of the zipper of the suitcase. After it passed through an airport X-ray machine, it was discovered that a live cat was curled up inside the case.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) posted several images on Twitter and described the finding as "hiss-toric"."We're letting the cat out of the bag on a hiss-toric find. This CATch had our baggage screening officers @JFKairport saying, "Come on meow"!" TSA wrote in the caption.

The officers who saw the image, and then opened the case to find the cat, were "shocked," TSA spokesperson was quoted by CNN.

On November 16, when a suitcase was checked from JFK to Atlanta for a subsequent travel to Florida, the orange cat's close encounter was discovered. The Delta Air Lines customer was paged to come to explain his luggage and informed TSA that "it was not his cat, and it belonged to someone else. They proposed that the cat, which was perched atop the luggage and even had fur poking out of the case between the zippers, had entered the case covertly. CNN reported.

The passenger is believed to have missed his flight but was able to rebook for the next day without the cat. The cat, who is reportedly named Smells, doesn't seem to be affected by his antics, according to the New York Post, which claimed to have located it.