Piñatas get no respect to begin with.
The cheerful, colorful beauties are meticulously created – only to be destroyed.
Their lot in life consists of getting battered, bruised and beaten by blindfolded folks with sticks.
If that’s not enough, people routinely abuse piñatas, forcing these papier-mâché masterpieces into illegal activities.
Such activities tarnish the piñatas perky image and wrongfully ruin their rosy reputation.
Smuggling drugs is one of the most common piñata abuses, but the cute little critters can also be stuffed with other stuff that’s illegal to take over the border.
Like people.
One of the infamous piñata abuses was the PowderPuff Girls piñata that had its own little girl inside.
This particular piñata was in the back seat of a car driven by two U.S. citizens with California plates back in 2004, according to an article at Sign On San Diego. The couple was hauling a whole load of piñatas from Mexico through the Tecate Port of Entry.
“Officers began to take the piñatas out of the back seat, and one seemed to be much heavier than the others,” the article quotes Vince Bond, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “This one had a little girl of approximately 4 or 5 years of age inside it.”
Even the less creative piñata abuses can be just as illegal. Arizona’s very own Douglas Port of Entry U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers recently busted a whole tractor-trailer load of piñatas that were violating intellectual property rights, according to a news release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The 108 piñatas were Disneyland character rip-offs – maybe about the same caliber as those faux Rolex watches or fake Gucci bags that say “Gulli.”
“The piñatas may have an appearance of innocence,” the release quotes Eli Villarreal, assistant port director and overseer of all commercial operations, “but the aggregate shipment of illegal merchandise on a national scale can undermine the stability of our nation’s economy; a vital element in national security.”
The economy could have gone further under, worse than it is, with that truckload of phony Plutos and counterfeit Mickey Mouses.
[tnipoll]
What do you think?
Are such illegal activities ruining piñatas good name?
Do you even like piñatas?
Do you have any fun piñata tales or piñata horror stories? Do tell.
