Originally Posted by
hockeyguy
Does customs know how long you were out of the country? I thought only immigration had that information in front of them, but they don't see how much checked luggage you have. Or does immigration write something about the length of your trip on the bottom of the customs form?
In short, you probably didn't do anything to trigger the extra search, and even if you did, it's probably not the luggage (and I doubt I&C will tell you what it was). I'd chalk it up to bad luck and I wouldn't worry about it for the future.
My assumption was that once they key it in to the computer, they've got all the immigration data. Could be wrong, though. I hope you're right and that it was just a fluke and/or the fact that I was one of the first cows in the gate. I guess I'll find out the next time I take a long trip but maybe I'll dither for a minute and let a few people into the line ahead of me.