Funny things to declare over the US/Canada border...

[antda 13]

Hi Everyone,

Ok, I was talking about this in another message thread on the Canada boards..and thought it would be better off in its own thread...

So my questions are:

"Have you declared anything strange/weird/unusual to the border guards when travelling between the USA and Canada?"

"And if so, what did you declare?"

"Did you have any problems when you had to declare such items?"

"Did you not declare something, even though you were supposed to?"

My list of strange/weird/unusual items that I declared (at the land borders, when I travel by car/van) include:

-A Christmas tree (during my POE...in the middle of April...to US border guards...lol..was also interrogated at secondary for that..)

-A snow shovel (in winter...to Canadian border guards...wondering why I had such...to shovel snow around the car..lol...)

-Smarties candy (in spring/summer...to US border guards....they had no clue what that was...)

-A lawn chair (in spring/summer...to Canadian border guards...wondering why I had such..forgot to take it out..lol..)

-Baseball bats and balls, tennis rackets and balls, (in spring/summer...to Canadian border guards...wondering why I had such..forgot to take it out..lol..)

-Bagels (in summer...to Canadian border guards...they stared at those while I had in pain view near the front seat..would have offered them one too, if asked..)

-Not an item..but, noteworthy: I declared that I was only in Canada for 45 minutes only...Just to renew my Canadian passport...lol.....

So anyone else have funny things to declare pr not declare over the border? What are your funny declaration stories?

Let's read and share about your declaration experiences too!

Ant

Edited November 6, 2009 by Ant+D+A

[CDAgirlMI 51]

My dad is diabetic & I get a lot of sugar-free/no sugar added stuff for him in the US cause there's a better selection.

I once declared cookies, haha.

Canadian officer may have thought it was funny too cause he asked "what kind"?

"chocolate chip"

he says "mmmm, that's my favourite".

[antda 13]

My dad is diabetic & I get a lot of sugar-free/no sugar added stuff for him in the US cause there's a better selection.

I once declared cookies, haha.

Canadian officer may have thought it was funny too cause he asked "what kind"?

"chocolate chip"

he says "mmmm, that's my favourite".

Yummy..those are my favourite kinds too!

Lol..should have offered one to the border guard in that case....Oh well..they didn't ask...

Hope your dad liked the cookies too...Aww...nice of you to bring him such!

Ant

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Two border crossing stories:

I used to cross into the US regularly as an historic re-enactor (War of 1812). I remember one crossing into the US when we were asked if we had any firearms, we declared our flintlock muskets. The guard became really excited and asked if he could see them because he had never seen a flintlock musket before. So, we opened up the van, took a musket out of its case and let him handle it. He oohed and aahed over it before handing it back to us and sending us on our way.

Two Christmases ago we were flying from Ottawa to Atlanta (via Detroit). At Customs in the Ottawa Airport, we were asked to put our carry on luggage on the x-ray machine. The man stopped the belt while my bag was being scanned, looked at it closely, then looked at me and said, "2 large cans of Tim Horton's coffee?". I said "yes". He smiled, and then said 'paints in tubes - watercolour or oil?'. "Water colour" I said. "Good answer!" he responded, "if they had been oil paints I would have had to confiscate them or you would have had to send this bag through checked luggage.

[Hugglebuggles 60]

Once I crossed back into Canada after visiting for a week and they asked if I had anything to declare. I said yes, I bought a new pair of shoes. The guard seemed really disinterested and started typing things into the computer until I said, "don't you want to see them?" and he was like, "no that's alright" and I said, "but they're right here" and lifted up my foot. He didn't care at all. He just gave me a half smile, gave back out passports and told us we could leave.

The funniest story I remember is when I crossed with my aunt. She's a Canadian border guard and always presents her border credentials as ID. The officer looked at her and said, "oh I heard you guys are getting guns over there!" and they proceeded to have a 5 minute conversation about firearms and shooting lessons. I don't even think he asked us where we were going or for how long.

[Rhiannercakes 14]

All I've ever really declared is books and candy

[SunDrop 59]

Not across the US/Canadian border, but flying from London, England to Manchester, NH via JFK. I am a paper crafter/ scrapbooker and so was my best friend, who we were traveling to visit. I had a portable 'die-cut' machine and a folder with the shapes in. Basically works like a hand squeeze press with 2 metal plates and you slide the shape and paper inbetween the plates and it cuts the shape into the paper.

It's about the length of a forearm and pretty heavy. It's also very valuable, so I opted to carry it on board with me. We fly transatlantic, clearing security at Heathrow, of course and go to transit from our NY flight onto Manchester, but have to go through security again. He stops me and opens the bag, pointing to the quickkutz and folder and says, 'what's THAT?!' I told him it was a craft tool and went to open the folder up and he leapt back and shouted, "DON'T TOUCH IT, MA'AM!!" So needless to say, I didn't. "What does it do?" "It presses different shapes out of card and paper for using in a scrapbook." He then looked at me like I was crazy and said, "I'll need to confer with my supervisor." Goes off and comes back and shakes his head. No way, I'll have to check the bag. I ask him why and he looks at me like I'm crazy again and says, "Ma'am. It constitutes a lethal weapon." Now it's my turn to look at him like he's crazy and he goes on to say, "We just can't take the chance Ma'am that you're not going to go nuts on board and start attacking people with it." I was mad as all heck because I was travelling with my 4 year old, near to boarding time for our connecting flight and would have to go through security all over again. So I said, "Sir, if I was going to go nuts on any flight, traveling with my 4 year old, do you not think I'd have gone nuts on the 7 hour transatlantic flight, rather than the 1 hour hopper flight?" Of course he didn't care, I had to check the bag or leave my lethal weapon behind.

On the way back through security, I had a different guy who pulled our other bag with my daughter's stuff in to one side and said, "Ma'am. What is that?" Pointing to my kid's Leappad, which is like an electronic talking book for kids to read along and interact with a little pen with. "It's my daughter's leap pad, it's a toy and sure as heck doesn't constitute a lethal weapon, unless you plan on boring the pilot to death from listening to the same questions and stories repeatedly." The first security guy came over, having heard my brain explode, no doubt, and looked at it and told the new guy it wasn't a problem. His kid had one and it drove him crazy but it wasn't lethal as the lady pointed out. LOL

I nearly told him if he made me check our bag because of the Leap pad, I was going to recover the first bag and put my 'lethal weapon' craft tool to good use. But figured that would get me arrested, so I shut up!

[Flames9_RN 358]

Toilet paper!!!!!!! A whole suitcase full of it!! When I first moved down here I couldnt find any TP I liked! So on one trip back to Stoon I brought back a full suitcase of my favorite TP!! I went thru Toronto Pearson and at that time (maybe still??) if u were flying to DC, all ur luggage was hand searched, even ur checked luggage@! The Security person had the strangest look on her face when she opened up the suitcase,lol Since then i have found Costco brand to be more than acceptable,lol

[frenzyheart 2]

Here ya go, and these are my two favorites...

Going into the States: Timbits. AND they knocked the box over when they searched our vehicle, so there were Timbits all over the floorboard in the back. !D:

Going into Canada: .. We got weird looks for the 20-30 bottles of Vitamin Water we brought up into Canada once. The guy raised an eyebrow, and I said "Wut. Canada doesn't sell it yet and I love my Vitamin Water." He laughed and said "Well okay then. Have a nice day!" and hey, three weeks later, guess what I found at Shoppers?

Usually, that's all we have because we usually stop right before the border and dispose of our meal bags. Oh, and if I'm going to Canada for an extended period of time, there is ALWAYS a case of Cherry Pepsi in the back because seriously... Canada lacks it... or at least Ontario does. Boooo. lol

[DeadPoolX 9]

I didn't bring anything with me while crossing the border; however, I did have packages sent up after I arrived in Canada. One of those packages was held at customs because it "constituted a possible threat to national security."

These packages consisted of...

1. My computer

2. Music CDs and video games

3. Swords (I collect them)

4. Clothing.

Guess which one they confiscated and held for days? My clothing. They let items like my swords through easily (even though each one is razor sharp), but not the clothing!

What was I going to do? Try to strangle people with my sweater or fling socks at them?

[J&K 0]

Coming back into the US my last two trips...

Hockey equipment

And the last time, I was bringing back some things for a friend of mine who is also a WWII re-enactor...a couple of WWII dated Canadian marked kitchen flys, and a 20 inch combat rim (split rim) for a CMP (BIG military truck).

I didn't declare those, and never got asked about it, even though the rim was behind my passenger seat in the back

[Missa 0]

i didn't have to declare anything but dale and i were pulled over into secondary ( again) because he has borrowed his brother's truck to come pick me up and drive back with me. um apparently there was a bottle of pink sunny D in the back of the truck and because of the cold weather is exploded and made the snow look all redish pink. the border guard saw that and thats why we were pulled over and given the 3rd degree.

damn sunny D

[darkchilde794 5]

LOL! Love this thread!!!

I dont really remember anything Ive had to declare thats really interesting but a coworker of mine told me a funny story about when he was crossing the border one summer.

He and his friends stopped for McDonalds on the way to the Canada/USA border (Niagara Falls) and were eating their food while waiting for the CBP. The CBP approached them and said that they were not allowed to bring "foreign meat across the border".

My friend's (who was eating a burger) smart mouth got the better of him and he quickly replied, "Are you kidding man? This stuff comes from you guys!"

And so he got sent to secondary and on the way to secondary, he was told to get rid of his burger. He yelled, "I'm almost done! I'm almost done!" and stuffed the entire thing in his mouth.

He got "grilled", big time.

[neiks 19]

There is not too much that surprises me anymore. I have had everything from deceased people, dead pets, belly button piercings, boa constrictors, every kind of circus animals, to tumble weeks declared to me.

I have heard thousands of "just empty pockets, dirty hands" from the casino, "stomachs full of steak" and "belly's full of beer". The latter not being a wise one to declare since we now have ASD's at ports and can arrest for DUI's.

People delcare their stick of gum or soda pop or newspaper and think it's the funniest thing we have ever heard - trust me - we have heard it a bizilion times.

[Sam and Ben 2]

Last time I came home from a three week visit in Florida, our shuttle was pulled into secondary as normal and I was asked the value of any purchases/gifts I was returning with. I left most of the movies/books I'd bought at Ben's place, except for one book I knew I'd want to sink into asap, so I told her fifteen dollars. The woman raised an eyebrow and asked if that was really all I had to declare after a three-week long vacation down in Florida.

I laughed and told her that my fiance and I were undergoing the K1 visa application process - that we couldn't afford much else. She laughed and said she understood, wished me luck with our visa and sent me on my way.