Handling Salmon in Suspicious Circumstances

While it sounds like a joke from a Monty Python sketch, the Salmon Act 1986 is real UK legislation. The specific wording makes it illegal to 'handle a salmon in suspicious circumstances'.

The law was actually designed to crack down on poaching and the illegal sale of stolen fish from private country estates. By making the 'suspicious handling' illegal, police didn't have to catch the poacher in the act of pulling the fish from the water; simply possessing the fish under shady conditions was enough to secure a conviction.