The man who traveled from the UK to Australia as a collect order

Imagine you are in a foreign country, but you have no money to return home. What would you do? For in the mid-1960s, Australian athlete Reg Spiers found himself in the same situation, and the solution he found to leave was, to say the least, unusual.

Olympic bad luck

According to BBC Jason Caffrey, Reg was a promising Australian dart thrower, and had gone to London to recover from an injury before competing in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. recovering in time and, desperate to get money to return home, Reg decided to get a job at the airport in the English capital.

Unfortunately, the Australian was eventually robbed, and because he wanted to get to Adelaide - where he lived with his family - for his daughter's birthday, he was forced to take desperate measures. The athlete worked for an air freight company, and knew it was possible to ship orders whose freight was only charged upon delivery.

In addition, Reg had seen countless animals being shipped from country to country in this way, and he knew the maximum dimensions of cargo that could be shipped by air freight. So the Australian convinced a friend to help him build a box so he could be shipped to his country - to collect.

Bespoke crate

The box had to measure exactly 1.5m x 0.9m x 0.75m, and this friend, knowing that Reg was going ahead with the madness of being sent to Australia to order, built a box that, in addition to meeting the The athlete's specifications allowed him to sit with his legs outstretched and to lie down with his knees bent.

The opening and closing of the crate could be controlled from the inside, and inside were straps to keep Reg relatively secure while the parcel was loaded and unloaded. The Australian even packed with him canned food, a flashlight, blanket, pillow and a couple of plastic bottles - one with water and one for his eventual needs.

To avoid suspicion, the “order” was identified as a shipment of ink addressed to a fictional shoe company in Australia, and the journey involved a few stops along the way. Before leaving, the shipment was delayed 24 hours in London due to heavy fog, and Reg could only go out to stretch his legs after the plane finally took off.

Endless path

The first stop was in Paris, and after the box was loaded on another plane, the parcel went on to Mumbai, India. Once there, Reg was left upside down for four hours "baking" in the sun, and to endure the infernal heat, decided to be completely naked in his hiding place. Ever wondered if the Australian had been caught in this situation?

After being loaded on another plane, Reg continued his trip to Perth, Australia, and after spending three long days in the box, the athlete arrived at his destination. The cost of such a “heavy” order was actually higher than the value of a common ticket. But with no money in his pocket, Reg preferred to worry about the payment once it got home.

From order to celebrity

The Australian waited for the box to be dropped off at the freight terminal before leaving, and left the airport quietly without anyone noticing. Incidentally, the story came to light only after Reg's friend - the one who built the box in London -, desperate to hear nothing from the Australian, decided to alert the media, and the athlete even became a celebrity at the time.

In the end, the airline decided not to charge anything for shipping the "parcel", and Reg made it in time for his daughter's birthday - as well as a beautiful story to tell her grandchildren. However, thankfully, the Australian's adventure took place in the 1960s, as if it had been today, it would certainly have been detected by airport security systems and would be in great trouble.