ThirtyOne

a bottle of water in my carry-on backpack on my last flight.

MKEbound

Dirt - I have a friend that collects little vials of dirt from different countries. She uses the 35mm film containers. I brought back some dirt from Belgium for her. I've also brought back a few liters of Cuban Rum and some cigars, but everybody does that.

manneca

Me into Honduras from Nicaragua and a coca cola back into Nicaragua. Well, I wanted a coke and there weren't any in Nicaragua, but just across the Rio Coco was a little market and a contra base.

chgoeditor

When I lived in Saudi Arabia, I'd regularly bring in a can or two of Coca-Cola, since it was banned in Saudi. The customs agents in Saudi are thorough, so while it was technically prohibited, they'd usually see it and let it slide.

My Mom picked a few sprigs of a fern-like plant from Michelangelo's house in Italy, smuggled it back to the US and planted it in her garden. I think she liked the idea of saying, "Oh, that's my plant from Michelangelo's house."

Coming home from a cruise, I once passed through US customs with my then-boyfriend, who was wearing a new Cartier watch on his wrist (costing about $3K or $4K), casually hidden under his shirt cuff. I declared the $600 necklace I'd bought in St. Thomas. The Customs agent asked to see my necklace (I was wearing it), then looked at my boyfriend and said, "She didn't put too much of a dent in your wallet."

Marathon Man

in 1995 we flew to Geneva, Switzerland to ski in France. Upon going thru Customs in Switzi, the guy at the xray thing asked me, "Why are you carrying a knife?" I took it out of my ski bag and showed him. It was a Swiss Army Knife hanging on my key ring. I said, "Oh sorry, I figured if anything, THESE were allowed here!" he growled at me and let me pass.

cpx

self and a friend

crossed the country border by car... had to make up an excuse on the
way back.

Marathon Man

2 months ago, 7 friends of mine drove to Montreal for a 3 day weekend. Upon returning to the US in Vermont, the car was searched and this spooked them. Well, they were allowed to go thru and they drove a while down the highway. About 3 miles or so later, they THEN stopped and threw away all the weed they had brought INTO Canada and then the remainder back out. I was like, WHY? You already got thru!

In 1996, my now wife, then girlfriend had to get her Visa renewed. She's from Europe. The INS told her to go to the Canadian border. We were living in VT at the time so we took an afternoon drive. The papers were mixed up and so were we. they wanted to deport her then and there until we explained our mistakes and said we were now trying to fix them. So the US told her to go to Canada and come back in and the US would issue her a new visa. But when she got to Canada (litterally 30 feet away) they got mad at her and this man with a heavy french accent said he did not like his country to be used in this way. He reluctantly issued her entry and then when she went back to the US side, they had just gone on a shift change. The new agents were pissed at her and wanted to know what scam she was trying to pull. We had to do it all over again and were there for at least 5 hours. Both countries hated her by the time we left.

I once went to visit a friend in Atlantic City, NJ flying CO from Boston. I had a bag of weed on me in my carry bag. My car keys were in one side zipper and the weed in the other. The beeper went off and the guy wanted to see what I had. I went to show him what was in the zipper (the keys) and I forgot which side was which! I was very lucky to have opened the right one (slowly) but have never won at Roulette since. I dont mind though!

TxnTravlr

Thank you all for your cooperation... your IP addresses will be cross-checked and you should expect to be contacted by the local authorities in a matter of days!

Bobster

When I was a kid, we were returning to the U.S. from Canada after stopping to get some Tums for my father. The border guard asked if were carrying any items purchased in Canada and my father said, "Just some drugs". The guard apparently assumed that a real drug smuggler would not give that kind of response, so he let us go through with no further questions.

sundrop

thats the funniest thing I have read in a long time, thanks!

alanh

Two boxes of Total Raisin Bran into France. I was visiting my cousin, a US ex-pat and he missed his cold cereal.

Bullsman89

40 kg of Saudi Khlas Dates from Doha, Qatar

Marathon Man

hehehe

they will come up with something like this email I just got. So funny that people actually still fall for these:

To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: "Nuhu Ribadu" <[email protected]>
Subject: OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENCY
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENCY
ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRIMES COMMISSION
14A AWOLOWO LANE, IKOYI
LAGOS NIGERIA.
Motto: No Body is Above the LAW
Email address:[email protected]
FROM THE DESK OF: NUHU RIBADU

ATTN: BENEFICIARY,

RE: BE CAREFUL OF THE HUDLOOMS

I, am Mrs.Rose Moore (ASSISTANCE) Economic And
Financial Crime Commission, a
committee set up by the Federal Government of
Nigeria under the able
President Olusegun Obasanjo.The purpose of the
committee among other is to
investigate, verify and settle all outstanding
debts owed to foreign
contractors whose payment is overdue.

Consequently, we received a directive from the
office of the president,
ordering the above office to settle all genuine
contractors whose debts has
been outstanding for a long time now.and for
those that shown sufficient
proof regarding the release of their fund,And we
wish to inform you that in
our record here, you have fulfilled such
conditions.

But the reasons why your own Transfer has to be
delayed is because, there is
presently a counter claims on your funds by one
Mr. Peter Woo, who is
presently trying to make us believe that you
entered into an agreement with
him, to help you in receiving your fund, So here
comes the big question. Did
you sign any Deed of Assignment in favor of Mr.
Peter Woo.

If you did not sign, nor authorize Mr. Peter Woo
to receive your payment on
your behalf, kindly reconfirm to us, your genuine
ADRESS including your
phone number for verification Or call us, to
avoid making payment to a wrong
person, attempt to divert your payment to a new
account without your
knowledge.

This office is glad to inform you that your
payment shall be made as soon as
we receive your feedback of claim today. We are
sorry to inform you that the
Federal Government had made it clear to all
foreign contractors whose
payment is overdue to be paid immediately hence
all the modality relating to
the release of your contract fund had been
completed today.You are advised
to stop any further communication with any
department and any Government
parastatal.This is to forestall new effort
towards a diversion of your
payment.

We applogise on behalf of the President and the
good citizens of Nigeria for
any delay and lost this most have coursed you and
promise that such thing
will not happen again.And if you are dealing with
any of the hudloom
regarding this payment, we urge you to STOP,
because your funds in the total
sum $30,000 (Thirty Million United States
Dollars) which was recently
approved by the Presidency.

We wait your conceren and action of claim to this
regards. pleaes contcat us
here:Email address:[email protected]

Regards
Mrs.Rose Moore
(Mr.NUHU RIBADU: CHAIRMAN)

Catman

From Germany and Czech Republic: Fa Soap. Yes, Fa Soap. I have sensative skin and this soap prevented me from breaking out (since then I tried and found Dial works for me too but I try to get Fa when I can.) There's also a Flyertalker who brought back several bars of Fa for me last year!

From Canadia... Arm & Hammer Cat Litter Deoderizer. The person watching Eddie and Yaz spilled the container of deoderizer and I knew when I got home I would nto have time to get a box so found this at a supermarket.

Also, from Japan: two cans of a version of Fancy Feast. I visited a supermarket and was curious what their Cats eat. The food was made by Carnation who was bought by Purina who is now owned by Nestle (who owns half of the stuff on supermarket shelves.) Eddie devoured both cans and expected more!

From Nepal and CHina: empty Coke bottles - I liked the writing and wanted to save them. The one from Nepal got smashed in checked luggage. Eddie knocked down the CHina Coke bottle (Yes, I'm a PEPSI fan but I like the design of the old style Coke bottle! )

Catman

I would have said Cuban cigars but considering there are a number of Flyertalkers who smoke them (I being one and having brought a few in a few times) I did not find these among the "oddest" items.

Seems purrfectly normal to me. I even know a few folks who got caught with the cigars! OOPS!