21 Live Crabs Found Hidden In ‘Purposely Built’ Clothing Pouches After Illegal Harvesting

A Washington wildlife officer was stunned to find numerous live crabs concealed within “purposely built sewn-in pouches” in clothes after stopping two couples to inspect their harvest.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Police said Wildlife Officer Garrison was observing shellfish harvesters on the Tokeland tidelands in June when he saw a man place a live crab into the hood of a woman’s jacket, then trying to hide it by adjusting a large sunhat over it.

Soon after, the couple was joined by a second couple harvesting crabs. When the foursome returned to the parking area, Garrison asked if they had any crabs, and they allegedly said no.

The foursome then submitted five crabs for inspection. Garrison asked “a total of six times” if they had any more crabs, and they said no each time.

But crab legs were “protruding” from the first woman’s hood, and Garrison further noticed that “their clothing seemed to droop, showed bulges, and they walked carefully.”

Body-worn camera video shared by the agency showed Garrison lifting the woman’s sunhat to expose the crab there. He then began pointing to various bulges in their clothing.

“They started to remove crab from their clothes. They had been hiding crab in purposely built sewn in pouches in their clothes,” WDFW said. The women only handed over “one or two crab at a time” until Garrison pointed to additional bulges.

“Even when Officer Garrison thought they had removed all the crab, he patted them down and found more,” WDFW said.

In total, the women had 21 Dungeness crabs concealed within their clothing, 19 of which were undersized and one of which was female.

A puffer jacket and three “purposely-built crab hiding bandoliers” were seized for evidence, WDFW said.

All four individuals were criminally cited for failing to submit catch for inspection and undersized crab.