Inflatable Shark Barred from Visiting Strauss-Kahn

Dominique Strauss-Kahn got an unusual visitor at his place of luxury house arrest in New York on Friday: an inflatable shark.

The toothy blue fish inflated to about the size of a small person came with a string of helium balloons brought by an unidentified man.

The man tried to give them to a security official at the door of Strauss-Kahn's abode, but despite the mat reading "Welcome" outside, he was turned away. The balloons were the colors of the French and American flags -- red, white and blue.

The man with the shark was not the only member of the public curious to get closer to the former head of the International Monetary Fund. A group of Orthodox Jews dressed in black peered in at the door.

Strauss-Kahn is accused of a brutal sex assault against a hotel maid on May 14. He lives under strict house arrest in a $14 million house in Manhattan's trendy TriBeCa neighborhood and is awaiting a court appearance on June 6.