Turkish officials start probe into 9-year-old British girl's ‘unicorn passport’ story

ISTANBUL

Hürriyet photo

Turkey’s police department has just kicked off an investigation into claims that a 9-year-old British national entered the country showing a fake passport with a unicorn photo in it, according to Anatolia news agency.

Authorities claimed the passport customs official who stamped the girl’s fake passport did so to “please the child,” but forgot to stamp the real thing in a moment of haze.

The real passport does not have the entrance stamp, but the exit stamp is reportedly there, Anatolia news agency said.

Reports surfaced earlier today that Emily Harris had reportedly passed through passport control on May 28 with a fake passport that featured the picture of a stuffed unicorn.

Harris was not interrupted in any way and her play passport was stamped by authorities as she entered the country. Her parents were unaware that she had presented the fake passport instead the real one, the report said.

The passport has “European Union, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland” written in gold letters, and underneath a golden shape resembling a teddy bear’s head. The passport identifies the owner, which is seen as a purple, stuffed unicorn, as Lily Harris, with purple hair and black eyes.

“I didn’t realize until I was putting the passports away. There was a moment of panic when I thought someone would come chasing after us, but nothing,” Emily Harris’ mother, Nicky Harris, was quoted as saying.

She added that the event was worrying to all parents, since it showed “how easy it would be to smuggle a child through customs and into another country.”