Auricman Posted January 16, 2003 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2003 I am an American of N. European origin. Once when I was returning from your country a U.S. Customs agent found a ham sandwich in my carry-on bag. I had bought it before boarding the plane in Amsterdam and never got around to eating it before landing. He said it's illegal to import ham, blah,blah,blah. I asked him if I could just eat the sandwich on the spot, but he said, "No. Wait here until an agent of the Dept. of Agriculture comes to confiscate the item." So I waited about 20 min. until the agent arrived. He 'confiscated' the sandwich and lectured me about it being illegal, etc. and then I was permitted to leave. (oranges are a no-no, too). So Arab terrorists can get into the country, but the Dutch ham stays out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auricman Posted January 16, 2003 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2003 No, there is never a problem arriving here, only returning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auricman Posted January 16, 2003 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2003 [color:"red"] Never, cant see how they can know where I have come from unless they look at the passport as a lot of the time I get connecting flight from Amsterdam. [/color] When the immigration officer looks through the passport he makes notes on the customs slip that inform the agents to do a more thorough search. The first time I had returned from LOS I had visa stamps for Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, etc. in my passport. I think that time the agent thought he hit the jackpot. So I'm sure he put the 'appropriate' markings on my custom slip. But on my last trip back I had a new passport, so the only 'source' country visa in the passport was from LOS. It's just something we have to deal with and stay cool while they search us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllenBlue Posted January 16, 2003 Report Share Posted January 16, 2003 I, too, return to Honolulu but I have never really been questioned - beyond a couple of simple questions and this is usuallly as we are moving toward the exit- questions like "what did you travel for?" What work do you do?" Never even been searched. I'm usually beaming to have made it back (I always travel space available - airline employee thing - so happy to have caught the flight!). But, really, I usually expect to, hasn't happened yet but probably will one of these days! AllenBlue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crofty68 Posted January 17, 2003 Report Share Posted January 17, 2003 returning to OZ.. everytime..from a 2 week jaunt to a one & half year away trip. .re african smugglers read the Bkk Post every day for a week & some dumb Afr. fools are busted with kilo's of Heroin several times a week, every week.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walletss Posted January 17, 2003 Report Share Posted January 17, 2003 There is a possibility that you were just randomly searched. Usually when I return to Austrlalia after a trip to LOS, I just sail right past customs. There have been a couple occasions when they searched everything. I think they just have days when they decide they want to check certain flights. Did they search any other passengers that came from LOS? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fidel Posted January 17, 2003 Report Share Posted January 17, 2003 Myself and my two friends had our stuff throughly rummaged through and our bags swabbed with some kind of chemical detection equipment in Sydney on arrival via BKK. They were about to put on the glove when I scared the shit out of them by doing an almost full monty to show my extr baggy pants weren't full of smack. The had sbiffer dogs on us too. Only happened once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 17, 2003 Report Share Posted January 17, 2003 Never even been searched. I'm usually beaming to have made it back That is why you are not getting searched. They don't care about the answers, but the body language. I'm usually having a little nervous feeling as that last coffee is kicking in on top of sleeplessness and I'm thinking of making the next connection and whether my bags will make the same flight and whether any natural disasters have happened since I've been back. Show a bit of nervousness for any reason and your'e going to the search line. They are tight lipped on why you were selected for obvious reasons. If you ever get anything more specific than "source country", you are lucky. I actually got the "looked nervous" out of one agent in a weak moment. There are lots of other things they look for too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spirit_of_town_hall Posted January 17, 2003 Report Share Posted January 17, 2003 Thats very very true, the more controlled you look the higher chance you have of getting caught. Normal people just walk through, if you are to busy looking at your watch, looking at your mobile fone you will get the tap. Incidentally if you visit the toilets just where the passport control is you will be pulled. This is the case for any airport. Customs officers often find drugs in the cisterns of airport toilets, put there by people who have bottled out of smuggling drugs. STH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mongatu Posted January 17, 2003 Report Share Posted January 17, 2003 Regarding profiling, I had an interesting experience once arriving in NY from Amsterdam. I was traveling with my Asian-American gf. As we were walking through the customs gauntlet, she had gotten about 20 feet ahead of me and thus momentarily appeared to be traveling alone. A female customs officer started to pull her off to the side for further examination. I caught up to them just as this was happening and told the officer, "She is with me." (Btw, I am Caucasian.) Upon hearing this, the officer immediately lost interest in her and just waved us both on. I concluded from this that Asian women traveling alone must fit one of their drug smuggling profiles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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