we have roughly 1.2 million items everything from tigers and lions to polar bears, sea turtles, The pieces that we house here in our collection come from all across the country.

Everywhere that we have special agents and wildlife inspectors, My name is Elissa Dahlberg.

I am the lead biologist and collections manager for the National Wildlife Property Repository.

And so this case actually involved, smuggled designer handbags from South America.

not everything in the facility was trafficked.

other items are in our collection because they weren't properly permitted when they were trying to being imported into the country.

So this is a purse handbag made out of stingray.

And Cayman.

Looks like.

Working in a warehouse can be emotionally draining.

over time, you get desensitized to it.

And items don't really impact you as much anymore.

we'll get a lot of ivory from the general public that may have inherited that from a family member in the past, and they don't know what to do with it.

They know it's illegal to buy, sell, trade, barter.

So they reach out and hand it over to us.

I think predominantly we see more, fashion items geared towards women.

handbags are very common I think for some, it's a status symbol.

Many of these items can be, very valuable and this entire aisle is comprised of crocodile.

Again, a full range of products.

We see the crocodile boots.

We have some purses.

And this is, a pretty unique purse.

That we're also seeing in the wildlife trade.

And this particular purse is actually made from an endangered species of crocodile, the African dwarf crocodile.

the impact that wildlife trafficking has.

if you look at the pattern, this is what we call the back strap pattern that runs down the spine of the animal.

You know, and they only have one spine.

So if you start counting the backs back, strap on the coat, you have one there, one on this side, one on each sleeve.

And then down the back.

So at a minimum, five animals went into making one coat.

what we are doing is giving these items a second life.

We turn around and use it to tell the story of these species, tell what's happening to wildlife in the trade, and hoping that by educating people when they come for tours, that that will have a positive impact in the future.

Then after their heat shield, they go on the shelf, which I think might be a