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Vacationing Czechs drive on the wild side

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Wild and crazy animal encounters are shaping up as a summer travel risk — especially for vacationers from the Czech Republic — based on reports from insurers.

A hungry giraffe at a German safari park damaged a car door while yanking its head back out of the window after grabbing some apples on the front seat, insurers told the Czech News Agency.

View the Best Off Beat stories from July.

Not to be outdone, an Allianz S.E. customer reportedly made a claim for damage from hitting a kangaroo — also while in Germany. The marsupial reportedly had escaped from a pet store.

And in Norway, Allianz covered a driver who swerved to avoid a moose and managed to skid into a nearby bear, the news service said.

Not all the complaints to travel agents for travel insurance claims were payout-worthy, but they were delivered with passion.

One vacationing couple sought a refund because of a rooster's daily noisy crowing, while another beefed that their stay at an El Mojito hotel was marred by the unavailability of mojitos to drink, which was blamed on a lack of mint.

One frugal Czech traveler even measured his hotel room to find it was only 16 square meters, rather than the agreed-upon 25 square meters. The news service quoted his complaint: “This is evidently a trick played on me as a client. I was deprived of 34% of the accommodation area I had paid for.”

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