We like to think that we're pretty astute when it comes to figuring out if someone is wearing a costume. We know that Big Bird isn't a real bird and that Grimace isn't a real whatever it is that he's supposed to be. But then there are times when people have been fooled by the dumbest disguises imaginable, raising the question of whether any of us are ever actually paying attention.

6 A Fish and Wildlife Agent Goes Undercover as a Gorilla

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In the early '90s, agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were on the verge of a major bust. The perp was Victor Bernal, the director of zoos and parks for a Mexican state. The Toluca zoo's gorilla had died, and Bernal was desperate to replace his star attraction, even if it meant turning to the illegal exotic animal trade and bribing customs officials to look the other way. Unfortunately for him, the underground Miami animal dealer he contacted was actually running a sting operation for the FWS.

But the agents still had a problem: In order to secure an arrest, they'd have to actually make the handover with Bernal. But not even the federal government can just grab a gorilla and take it to Mexico. The problem appeared intractable until the guy in charge thought "Screw it," went down to a local costume shop, and bought a gorilla suit.

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"Closer. Try it without the boxing gloves, and maybe put on the lower half of the costume."

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Wildlife officer Terry English was chosen to get into the suit, on the basis that "the agent was fairly proficient at ape-like sound effects." The cage was then wheeled down to the airport and loaded on board Bernal's plane. They even scattered a few lumps of actual gorilla dung around the cage, partly for verisimilitude but mostly in the hope that the stench would keep the Mexicans from looking too closely at their purchase. And it worked -- totally fooled by the store-bought disguise, the smugglers transferred 95 grand to the suppliers, who immediately revealed themselves as undercover agents and placed Bernal under arrest.

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And that's when things got really hilarious. Now that the ruse was up, English had no more need of a sweaty, shit-encrusted gorilla costume, so he simply opened the door of the cage and walked toward Bernal, who reportedly lost his shit. Even after English had removed the mask, the prisoner still thought a real gorilla was actually coming to rip his head off and punt it onto the runway. In the end, Bernal wound up with a relatively light 70-day prison sentence, possibly because it was felt that he'd suffered enough.