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Funniest thing you have heard from customs upon reentering your home country?

Funniest thing you have heard from customs upon reentering your home country?

Old Oct 27, 2015, 11:31 pm
  #226  
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"Sign here and we will destroy them. If you don't sign we will hold them as evidence."

All over a few dozen fake Rolexes.
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Old Oct 28, 2015, 2:07 am
  #227  
 
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HNL-ORD-YUL-EWR-HKG-ORD-YUL... one of my first mileage runs. Was feeling proud of that many hours in economy, that many timezones crossed, and very very frazzled. The poor Quebecois CBP agent couldn't make sense of my explanation that yes I was gainfully employed, and yes this was all I was traveling with, and yes this was my second time entering in as many days. Five nerve-wracking minutes later, the grunt of entry!

And all this time I'd thought the hard part of a MR was surviving the transit!
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Old Oct 28, 2015, 9:26 am
  #228  
 
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Originally Posted by WChou
Early 2000s at the Queenstown-Lewiston border crossing in New York, after checking my passport, the border agent ask me to pull into a garage. He closed the lane and walked behind my car. After pulling in, I was asked by the agent if he could hop into the driver seat. I consented and asked if there was a problem. "Oh, no problems. You are fine. I just wanted to see what it was like to drive this thing. Can I rev the engine?" At the time, I owned a rare, limited edition vehicle and the agent was a gearhead that wanted a closer look.
Originally Posted by Efrem
Not customs, but I ran into his cousin working for the TSA at BOS. At the time I had a brand-new, top-of-the-line 17" MacBook Pro going through the X-ray. He said he'd have to confiscate it for inspection. Similar story; I got it right back. Some of those folks are, at least some of the time, human.
The same happened to us - twice with the same agent - entering one of the smaller border crossings into Washington State from British Columbia in our brand-new 2006 Toyota RAV4 with the V6 engine. He was interested in buying one. The second time he asked us to pop the hood so he could see the engine compartment, and I have no doubt the people behind us in line thought he was looking for something devious.
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Old Oct 28, 2015, 12:58 pm
  #229  
 
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Originally Posted by Fredd
The same happened to us - twice with the same agent - entering one of the smaller border crossings into Washington State from British Columbia in our brand-new 2006 Toyota RAV4 with the V6 engine. He was interested in buying one. The second time he asked us to pop the hood so he could see the engine compartment, and I have no doubt the people behind us in line thought he was looking for something devious.
he's not being paid to car shop and was wasting everyone's time.
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Old Oct 28, 2015, 1:22 pm
  #230  
 
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Originally Posted by thelark
he's not being paid to car shop and was wasting everyone's time.
That goes without saying, yet I decided not to reprimand him, nor to bring this to his attention in any way.
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Old Oct 28, 2015, 3:15 pm
  #231  
 
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Flying Sydney to New Zealand to attend an Bledisloe Rugby final (Aussies V All Blacks). Tickets sold out, 98% All Black crowd to a tiny 2% aussie crowd (us).

Agent: Purpose for your visit?
Us: Going to the game tomorrow night.
Agent: Your tickets please
Me: (hand over eticket & boarding passes)
Agent: No. Your All Blacks ticket please. For the game
Us: What?
Agent: Well, it was worth a try (and he smiles)


The next day at the domestic security gates (private charter flight from Auckland to Dunedin for the game, 170 AB fans and only us 2 aussies), the security staff tried a similar thing and the pilot said over the loud speaker that we were to be served only water.

Last edited by Osmo; Oct 28, 2015 at 3:24 pm
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Old Oct 28, 2015, 11:00 pm
  #232  
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Originally Posted by Tchiowa
"Sign here and we will destroy them. If you don't sign we will hold them as evidence."

All over a few dozen fake Rolexes.
And that's something wrong on their part?
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Old Oct 28, 2015, 11:03 pm
  #233  
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Originally Posted by Loren Pechtel
And that's something wrong on their part?
I certainly felt so at the time.
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Old Oct 29, 2015, 1:43 am
  #234  
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A few dozen fake Rolexes? Were you dealing counterfeit goods?
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Old Oct 29, 2015, 2:21 am
  #235  
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Originally Posted by LondonElite
A few dozen fake Rolexes? Were you dealing counterfeit goods?
I used to bring 50 or so every couple of months to Angola back in the 90s. Mostly as gifts for local tribal leaders. So I guess you could say I was dealing in them, after a fashion.
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Old Oct 29, 2015, 2:31 am
  #236  
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Tsk tsk. You should have bought them real ones!
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Old Oct 29, 2015, 2:56 pm
  #237  
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Originally Posted by Tchiowa
I certainly felt so at the time.
One counterfeit for personal use is one thing, a bunch is quite another--I would expect customs to be upset at such a find.
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Old Oct 29, 2015, 2:58 pm
  #238  
 
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Originally Posted by Loren Pechtel
One counterfeit for personal use is one thing, a bunch is quite another--I would expect customs to be upset at such a find.
Agreed. It is after all their job to prevent the importation of illegal goods. I'd be surprised if they got upset about a single counterfeit brand-name item, but "a couple of dozen" suggests they're being imported for resale.
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Old Oct 29, 2015, 6:59 pm
  #239  
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Originally Posted by Loren Pechtel
One counterfeit for personal use is one thing, a bunch is quite another--I would expect customs to be upset at such a find.
That's what they told me. They allowed me to keep one and destroyed the others. It was the first time I'd had a problem in Customs and the next few times in I was a little concerned that I might be on a "List" and be subjected to extra scrutiny. I wasn't.
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Old Oct 29, 2015, 11:47 pm
  #240  
 
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I was In Tijuana for a birthday party of a friend.

I told the USCBP guy at San Ysidro I went to a mexican birthday party for the first time and he asked how I liked the part, what I thought of it, whether or not I hit the pinata (I mentioned there was a pinata)

When Entering Tijuana by foot through the new customs and immigration inspection building on the Mexican side, the INM women thought P was part of my last name, since she saw the field Type=P (document type field in american passports)

I thought it was funny she didn't know what the type field was.

At the same time, there was a group of chinese tourists entering Tijuana by foot; the mexican immigration officials took their passports to one desk, filled out their immigration forms, called people up, and said in broken chinese, Qian Ming (Sign your name)

It was a funny process.
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