Porcupines everywhere!

APPREHENDED: ‘We were just hunting porcupines,’ claims antiquities robber. Twice in one night, Israel Antiquities Authority theft-prevention unit catch suspects excavating at 2,000-year-old sites (Amanda Borschel-Dan).

Tuesday night was busy for the Israel Antiquity Authority’s theft-prevention unit in the Lower Galilee region. In two separate instances, inspectors encountered antiquities robbers in the process of illegal excavations.

“We were just hunting porcupines,” said one of the robbers in explanation of his presence in the middle of the night at a 2,000-year-old grave on Mount Hazon near the Druze/Arab village of Maghar.

[...]

Of course they were.

Sort-of-related porcupine stories are noted here.

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