Guard jailed for not arresting teddie bears at border

[Fairportfan]

Belarus guard get 2-year sentence for teddy bears

A Belarusian court has handed out a two-year prison sentence to a border guard who failed to protect the ex-Soviet nation from foreign teddy bears.

Belarus Supreme Court said Monday the guard has been convicted of failure to report an intrusion of a light plane that dropped hundreds of teddy bears decked out in parachutes and slogans supporting human rights over the tightly controlled country of 10 million. The court wouldn't give his name or rank.

Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko, dubbed "Europe's last dictator" in the West, already sacked several top defense officials over the July 4 incident, in which two Swedish advertising agency employees piloted a light plane into Belarus' heavily guarded airspace in a show of support for Belarusian human rights activists.

[Jabberwonky]

Not to inject a note of sanity into the situation, but how does a border guard know if a plane has permission to fly over? Two years? (I hope he has one of the bears to keep him from being lonely on those Belorussian nights)

[Fairportfan]

He's lucky. In North Korea, Dear Leader Jr would have had him shot.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

He's lucky. In North Korea, Dear Leader Jr would have had him shot.

North Korea would have shot the planes down long before they crossed the border on general principle anyways, so he likely wouldn't have even been involved in that case.

Also, how does a border guard stop an airplane anyways, does he have a SAM launcher at his duty post?

[Mark N]

He's lucky. In North Korea, Dear Leader Jr would have had him shot.

North Korea would have shot the planes down long before they crossed the border on general principle anyways, so he likely wouldn't have even been involved in that case.

Also, how does a border guard stop an airplane anyways, does he have a SAM launcher at his duty post?

We are talking about the same people that used to shoot people just because they were in the same family as a defector. Sanity has had little to do with that country for half a century, why should now be any different?

[shadowinthelight]

If any of those bears were like Ted then maybe they would have a case.

[Atomic]

Mathias Rust, anybody?

Perhaps THE straw that began breaking the Soviet Union's back!

[Jabberwonky]

He was delivering Build-A-Bears?