Just want to hear stories so I can mentally prepare myself for such… hostile… interactions… (Hopefully this never happens to me)
P.S: And before anyone start spamming “Don’t Consent to searches”, remember that that’s a very democracy-centric viewpoint. In some countries you could be jailed for refusing.
I was moving from Alaska to Boston, so I had to pass through Canada. Everything I owned was crammed into my Honda Element and I was driving it solo across North America.
I re-entered the US at a border crossing in North Dakota. I pulled up to the window and without saying anything else the officer pointed at a detached garage and told me to pull into it. As I slowly pulled into the garage, there was only enough light to see the outlines of the walls. When I turned off my car, super bright lights were switched on and I saw 6-8 heavily armed border officers with bulletproof vests on either side of the car. One of them instructed me to get out of the car and give him my keys. He also took my passport and took me into a small room in the garage that had 1-way mirrors (so they could observe me and I couldn’t see out) and then he locked me inside. There was nothing inside the room except a few folding plastic chairs – nothing to read and nothing to look at, nothing aesthetically pleasing at all. I could hear them going through my car, removing my plastic totes full of shit and searching through them. After what was probably 20 minutes, they opened the door, handed me my keys and passport and told me, “You’re free to go, welcome home.”
Did they put everything back together well? I always picture them leaving items strewn about.
Not really, my car was a mess! At least nothing was missing though.
Damn, this sounds like they fucked up and thought you were someone else. (Or maybe they were just being dicks, who knows)
What did you mean “instructed”? Like did they yell or just normal voice?
If a cop yelled at me like that’ I’m probabaly gonna think I’m about to get shot at and piss/shit my pants.
Haha, they just told me in a normal voice, but obviously I had to play along if I wanted to get back into the country. The experience was a bit dramatic, like something from TV, but it wasn’t actually scary because I had nothing to hide. They also asked if I had anything in my car they should know about, so I said I had a stash of liquor and explained that I was moving and wanted to bring my booze – but they didn’t care and didn’t touch my alcohol.