A Foster City couple is home after three weeks under arrest earlier this year in Tanzania accused of poaching.Jon and Linda Grant took a cruise that started in Cape Town, South Africa, that took them to a game reserve near Durban, South Africa. At the game reserve, they stopped at a curio shop where Jon spotted a 15- to 18-inch giraffe bone with a herd of elephants carved on it. He was interested in the bone because he hadn't seen anything like it and thought it might look good on his desk at home. He's a retired dentist who's traveled to 132 countries on seven continents."Is that legal," Jon said was the first thing he asked the shop clerk.The clerk said yes and told Grant all the laws have to do with ivory."That sounded logical," he said. But he hadn't thought the bone might be illegal in another country.Later in the trip the couple flew from Kenya to Tanzania for a 6-day safari. On the way out of the country, a baggage checker asked Jon to remove the bone from his luggage. Jon told the checker what it was and where he bought it. The checker examined it while the couple's luggage was put on a plane. But the next thing he knew his plane tickets had been canceled and the couple had their luggage back."The giraffe is our national animal," Jon said he was told.The couple was taken away in a van and spent two nights in jail and one night in prison. They faced 20 years in prison and a $150,000 fine for poaching."It was so out of line with what we did," Jon said.Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Francisco/San Mateo, has a somewhat different interpretation. Speier thinks they were targeted because they were Americans and they looked like they had money.Getting out of Tanzania cost the Grants $62,000, little of they will get back even though American officials intervened. Speier said the U.S. gives millions in aid to Tanzania each year. She said U.S. officials should reevaluate that aid or at least have a direct conversation about how local customs agents handle Americans being processed through their system. She said the problem faced by the Grants may be a pattern that has developed. If there is a pattern, U.S. officials need to reevaluate the U.S.'s relationship with Tanzania, according to Speier. Future travelers need to be alerted too, Speier said.Before the Grants were able to come home they had to pay $2,000 to have a person carry an original receipt from South Africa to a Tanzanian courtroom to prove where they bought the bone."This is pretty egregious," Speier said. ||||| African safari turns into ‘trip from Hell' for Foster City couple News African Safari turns to ‘trip from hell’ for Foster City couple Jon and Linda Grant have traveled around the world, but the couple from Foster City is now back home after what can only be described as the trip from Hell. 
 
 - Jon and Linda Grant have traveled around the world, but the couple from Foster City is now back home after what can only be described as the trip from Hell. 
 
 "I never knew I could be that afraid. I didn't know there was a fear level that high," said Linda Grant. 
 
 
 
 The Grants recently went to Africa on a safari. They were in gift shop in South Africa and bought a hand carved giraffe bone similar to ones sold on Ebay. 
 
 
 
 Grant says the store clerk told him the bone was legal to possess and that he wouldn't have any problems going through customs. 
 
 
 
 10 days later, as the Grants tried to leave Tanzania; airport security saw the souvenir in their bag and called anti-poaching officials. That’s when the nightmare began. 
 
 
 
 The couple was arrested for poaching and carted off to a Tanzanian jail, and later to a prison. 
 
 
 
 Poaching is punishable by 20 years in prison and a $150,000 fine. 
 
 
 
 "That was very, very scary. We were in with real criminals just lined up in the booking area," said Jon Grant. 
 
 
 
 "You're just so exhausted so tired you just go where they tell you to go," added Linda. 
 
 
 
 Jon Grant, a 72-year-old retired dentist and his wife would end up paying thousands of dollars he' says to bribe a judge and other officials to get the charges reduced and to get a earlier court hearing. 
 
 
 
 Grant was also able to contact a Foster City councilmember who called Peninsula Congresswoman Jackie Speier. 
 
 
 
 Speier then contacted the ambassador in Tanzania and got the charges reduced to failing to have an export permit. That carries a $30,000 fine. 
 
 
 
 "They said, ‘Are you willing to pay it?’ We said, ‘absolutely’. Cost us $30,000 for buying souvenir plus another $30,000 in bribes to get out of the country," said Jon Grant. 
 
 
 
 Speier told us by phone she intends to have a serious talk with the Tanzanian ambassador to discuss this case and corruption, in the hopes other Americans are not targeted. 
 
 
 
 "It is a nightmare and there have been nightmares since we got home from it," said Linda. 
 
 
 
 The Grants say they have no plans to travel outside the U.S. anytime soon. 
 

– A California couple on safari in Africa bought a souvenir that ended up being far more expensive than they could have imagined. Jon and Linda Grant picked up the souvenir, a 15- to 18-inch giraffe bone onto which a herd of elephants had been carved, at a game reserve in South Africa after being assured by the clerk that it was perfectly legal. That may have been the case in South Africa, but the Grants ran into trouble when the safari took them to Tanzania. They were jailed after being informed at the airport that the giraffe was Tanzania's national animal, reports ABC7. Anti-poaching officials were called to the scene, and the Grants were suddenly facing a 20-year sentence and a $150,000 fine. Eventually, the charges were reduced to failure to have an export permit, which carries a still-hefty $30,000 fine. "They said, 'Are you willing to pay it?'" Jon Grant, a 72-year-old retired dentist, tells KTVU. "We said, 'Absolutely.' Cost us $30,000 for buying [the] souvenir plus another $30,000 in bribes to get out of the country." Local Congresswoman Jackie Speier, who helped get the original charges reduced, thinks this was likely more than a mix-up—that the Grants were targeted as wealthy Americans. "This is pretty egregious," she tells ABC7, adding that US officials should be on the lookout for a pattern and that American tourists should be on alert. The Grants, meanwhile, "never knew" they could "be that afraid." (The UK wants Joan of Arc's ring back over an export licensing issue.)