No passport trying to get back to US after 9/11
I got married shortly after 9/11 and had my family from India attended the wedding. After the wedding (and honeymoon), I decided to take my two aunts and two cousins to see Niagara Falls. We checked into a hotel on the US side after a long drive. My cousins eager decided they wanted to see Canada at night so while my aunts (both over 70 year old) decided to stay at hotel and sleep we hoped into the car and drove over to the Canadian side.
The Canadian border guard just asked why we are coming to Canada. I said we just want to see it Canadian side before we go back in a few hours. He waved us in and did not ask for anything else. After a few hours, we started to drive back. Once we got to the US checkpoint, the customers officer asked for our passports. Only then did I realize that we left them in the hotel.
The customers officer just looked at us and asked who the other two passengers are and I explained that I just got married and they are my cousins. He asked how we got into Canada and did not believe that they did not ask for our passports. He said we would have to have our aunts come and drop off our passports. Since this was the first trip to the US for them, I knew my aunts would not answer the phone. Also they did not know english and they would not be able to communicate with anyone from hotel nor would they answer the phone.
After pleading with the customers officer to let just me in to get the passports, he started asking me a lot of questions about what I do. Well that did not go well as I was working on a radiation dectector that would help our first responders in case of a dirty bomb. The guard face was almost blood red at this point. You could just see how he was thinking how to explain that three brown people without passports or IDs wanted to enter the US who worked on radiation detectors right after 9/11.
After talking to someone on the phone for 10-15 minutes, he started asking about sports and who I liked. I explained that I liked the Yankees. After answering endless number of questions about the Yankees he asked which football team I liked. I thought about lying but decided to tell the truth. As soon as I said cowboys he yelled "You f'ing have to be kidding me. I should arrest you for being a cowboys fan as lesson" and open the gate and said get the hell back to my hotel and never forget my passport again.
Lesson learned. I have never leave without my passport.