
The garden gnomes looked innocent when they turned up in the mail, but Australia's notoriously tough customs officers gave them a good going over -- and found they were full of live snakes and lizards.
A total of seven snakes and eight lizards were found in the hollow areas beneath the typically pudgy and cheerful exteriors of three ceramic gnomes and in several pottery figurines sent from Britain, officials said Tuesday.
He said the reptiles had been put down because of concerns that they could spread disease.