8 ms·

Why Can't I Take an Orange Through Customs?

108 points by gordon_freeman 12y ago

leoc 12y ago
Try taking a set of bagpipes into the US.
- epochwolf 12y ago
  Are you talking about this: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/05/bagpipes-new-hampshire-canada-customs-seized-ivory http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/05/bagpipes-new-ha... ?
  - leoc 12y ago
    Yes!
- maradori 12y ago
  Are Kinder eggs still banned in the US? I remember my former manager got in lots of trouble trying to cross the border with some of them.
  - dsl 12y ago
    Kinda. Kinder now has a line of chocolates that they sell in the US, but the "surprise eggs" are still banned. The problem is the eggs contain a small toy inside the chocolate, and small children either don't see it or don't know not to eat it. The EU is considering banning them too because they have had children die.
    - hvidgaard 12y ago
      I really, really do not understand this at all. If a child dies because of what is inside that Kinder Egg, the adult that was supposed to look after the child would be responsible. Take them in for neglect or whatever, but don't ban some legitimite fun for children with responsible parents. Any child that is young enough to put everything in his/hers mouth, should be superwised by an adult and be in an environment where there is no such things anyway.
    - Xylakant 12y ago
      I have yet to hear about a ban or about children dying from choking on surprise egg toys. It's totally possible and sadly happens that small kids choke on small items but in general Europeans regard it as the parents responsibility to keep their kids away from choking hazards.
    - Luc 12y ago
      "The EU" is not considering any such thing, where did you get that idea?
      - billpg 12y ago
        I heard they were going to make children wear goggles when playing conkers too!
      - vidarh 12y ago
        There was a campaign by a couple of parents, that culminated with the rejection of a ban back in 2000.
    - ivanca 12y ago
      Only 3 children have died by choking on it in all its history. To put this in perspective cows kill 20 people per year in the US.
      - thret 12y ago
        Someone's probably managed to choke to death on every popular type of treat. http://www.health-benefits-of-dark-chocolate.com/death-by-chocolate.html http://www.health-benefits-of-dark-chocolate.com/death-by-ch... "In 1910 a young woman dies while trying to share her chocolate with her co-workers. She attempted to cut the bar in pieces and instead slipped and cut an artery in her leg."
    - redacted 12y ago
      I am reminded of The Onion's take on such bans: http://www.theonion.com/articles/fun-toy-banned-because-of-three-stupid-dead-kids,290/ http://www.theonion.com/articles/fun-toy-banned-because-of-t...
    - darklajid 12y ago
      Nah. I really don't believe that this idea of a ban in the EU is supported by facts. For me these things are rather uninteresting, but dangerous? The inside is quite huge and yellow (a capsule of sorts, containing the real toy). Inside of that you might have small stuff/a real choking hazard, depending on what you get (some things need to be assembled from parts). My son is two. He wouldn't stuff that in his mouth. My daughter is 9 month old and stuffs everything in her mouth, so this is about as dangerous as ~everything~ in my household, including the toys of the 2 year old. Plus .. I personally think that kids that still cannot distinguish between edible or inedible things shouldn't have chocolatey treats in the first place, but that's a different problem. I mean, I guess the aluminum foil wrapping seems more dangerous to me then the toy inside, if we're talking about choke hazards.
    - MURICA11111 12y ago
      No, the EU is not.
    - vidarh 12y ago
      The EU rejected banning them in 2000 despite more than a decade of campaigning by parents of three children who died in the 80's from choking on parts of the toys [1] No further action appears to have been taken by the EU since, and I've not found any mentions of further deaths since either. Note that none of these three kids "did not see it". The toys in Kinder eggs are contained within large yellow containers, and none of the kids choked on the container, they choked on parts of the toy that they had taken out of the container. The kids in question were 3 and 4 years old. 3 and 4 year olds regularly play with small toys, and most know better by then. If the child doesn't know better by 3-4 than to put tiny plastic toys in their mouth, then it's frankly the parents responsibility to supervise them better - they'll come into constant contact with small objects they can choke on in all kinds of places. [1] http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Parents+hit+out+at+EU+over+tiny+deadly+toys.-a065156393 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Parents+hit+out+at+EU+over+tin...
- lotsofmangos 12y ago
  Or a Steinway piano. - http://www.today.com/id/30442451#.VG1nVYVb9hF http://www.today.com/id/30442451#.VG1nVYVb9hF
- readerrrr 12y ago
  So if you plan to take your laptop it is better to upload the disk image and buy a new one in the states? I'm assuming the TSA can force a foreigner to unlock and then copy the disk. Wow this is sick: http://www.humblelibertarian.com/2011/06/10-of-tsas-worst-actions.html http://www.humblelibertarian.com/2011/06/10-of-tsas-worst-ac... http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2014/07/07/the-tsas-worst-screening-change-yet-no-phones-without-charge/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2014/07/07/th... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba030UmbkCo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba030UmbkCo http://www.humblelibertarian.com/2011/05/nottheonion-tsa-searches-baby.html http://www.humblelibertarian.com/2011/05/nottheonion-tsa-sea...
  - saryant 12y ago
    TSA has nothing to do with entry into the country—you don't encounter them on arrival unless you have an onward flight. CBP handles immigration and customs.
    - readerrrr 12y ago
      A simple web search shows that that isn't true. http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/travel-to-the-usa/global/en http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/travel-to-the-usa/g... http://www.imore.com/tsa-will-require-devices-be-charged-international-us-bound-flights http://www.imore.com/tsa-will-require-devices-be-charged-int... http://traveltips.usatoday.com/tsa-rules-international-travel-62791.html http://traveltips.usatoday.com/tsa-rules-international-trave...
      - hueving 12y ago
        I've entered the US through SeaTac, MSP, ATL, and SFO. In each of those, I never encountered TSA checkpoints until a connecting flight. If it is the final destination of your flight, you do not interact with TSA at all (unless you scream bomb in the airport or something).
        eitally 12y ago
WildUtah 12y ago
A customs dog sniffed me out and his handler searched my bag in 2010. I had some chocolates infused with orange oil in my pack. She was satisfied but apparently you can't bring oranges into Mexico from the USA or vice versa. Since then I always pack breakfast for early morning flights across the border, but I'm careful to eat it before landing or leave it for the aeromozas to clean up.
- vsloo 12y ago
  A customs dog once sniffed out my gf's orange zest scented shampoo. Got cornered by some officers and had to empty my suitcase. Security isn't always this strict though so it's pretty inconsistent at best.
flashman 12y ago
Bill Bailey on Australian Customs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s5AF4ahrOk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s5AF4ahrOk
- grecy 12y ago
  Australia has extremely strict customs because the flora and fauna is unique and has been isolated from the rest of the world for millions of years. We also don't have things like Rabies, and we'd like to keep it that way.
  - notjosh 12y ago
    FYI: Australia has "Australian bat lyssavirus" which is indeed a thing very much like rabies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_bat_lyssavirus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_bat_lyssavirus. It surprised me when I learned about its existence :)
  - gadders 12y ago
    The UK doesn't have rabies either.
  - jdmichal 12y ago
    Not that it matters. A bite from an Australian animal would kill you before the rabies kick in anyway.
bane 12y ago
I once had a fun experience. I was return to the U.S. after a stay in South Korea. My hosts gave me a box of grapes as a going away gift, I figured I'd eat them on the plane. Short story, I didn't. And I didn't throw them away. Customs asked me if I had any fruits, I told them yes I had grapes. They looked at each other and then looked at me. "Sir, we're going to have to see these grapes" "okay, if I'm not allowed to bring them in I can just toss 'em" quiet stare down while the other customs officer inspected my grapes "sir, where did you get these grapes?" "Korea" they turned to look at each other again, apparently I was bringing in the equivalent of a WMD about 5 minutes later the officer doing the inspection finally looked at the label "product of California, U.S.A." laughter ensued, I was given my grapes and allowed on through
- razster 12y ago
  Seems like someone could take advantage of this by making fake product labels.
gojomo 12y ago
Similar to the medfly 'Breeders' of this article, there's also informed speculation that covert actors are intentionally bringing Australian insects to California to destroy Eucalyptus trees. See: http://www.npr.org/2012/07/22/157189794/invasive-pests-or-tiny-biological-terrorists http://www.npr.org/2012/07/22/157189794/invasive-pests-or-ti...
- Freeboots 12y ago
  I wonder if that counts as biological warfare? I mean, theoretically you could really hurt an entire industry. A large Fruit Fly outbreak in certain countries could have really affect gdp
  - trhway 12y ago
    >I wonder if that counts as biological warfare? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_against_the_potato_beetle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_against_the_potato_beetle i remember how we, schoolchildren, collected these beetles which "American imperialists send to destroy our potato crops". That could have easily been photo of me only i was in USSR, not in Eastern Germany http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_against_the_potato_beetle#German_Democratic_Republic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_against_the_potato_beetle#G... :)
    - paganel 12y ago
      Good memories! I did take part in that "war", only that for me it happened after the Wall had already fallen (somewhere in the mid-'90s) but the damn beetles were still doing their thing. It was me, my brother and our grand-mother collecting those damn insects all-day long somewhere in a Carpathian village.
      - trhway 12y ago
        in that case, being from Eastern-European country, you may find this entertaining (i suppose your former country has done the right thing - i.e. join the NATO :) given the way (pro-)Russian rebels appeared http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_potato_beetle#2014_pro-Russian_conflict_in_Ukraine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_potato_beetle#2014_pro... and (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribbon_of_Saint_George http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribbon_of_Saint_George)
Patrick_Devine 12y ago
OK, that explains produce. Why the War on Kinder Surprise? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder_Surprise http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder_Surprise
- davidw 12y ago
  My Italian friends think it's a bit odd that you can't buy one of those in the US, because they're dangerous for children, but you can let 9 year olds loose with fully automatic weapons, and of course buy all kinds of guns. I can't do much more than shrug: every place has its contradictions. Additionally: I personally hate the damn things. My kids love to get them because of the stupid surprise. Sometimes my daughter just ignores the chocolate completely. It's a bit of marketing akin to the McDonalds Happy Meal with the cheap plastic toy. A far greater injustice in the world is not being able to import prosciuttos and similar cured meats.
  - moron4hire 12y ago
    >> but you can let 9 year olds loose with fully automatic weapons, and of course buy all kinds of guns. You really don't know how the US or guns work, do you?
    - davidw 12y ago
      Perhaps "loose" could be debated, but something like this would likely not happen in most European countries: http://www.snopes.com/info/news/uzi.asp http://www.snopes.com/info/news/uzi.asp And this kind of thing is much rarer: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/20/us/fsu-incident/index.html?hpt=hp_t2 http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/20/us/fsu-incident/index.html... I'm from the US and know quite well how things work. I'll also add this link, as I think it's an excellent, and nuanced view that a lot of people elsewhere don't know about or see: http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2008/04/guns.html http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2008/04/gun...
      - moron4hire 12y ago
gadders 12y ago
I had Fortnum and Masons Pork Pie taken from me by US Customs at Seattle Airpot :-(
- samwillis 12y ago
  I think thats the saddest things I have read today!
  - gadders 12y ago
    It was a present for a Brit friend working at Amazon.
MrDosu 12y ago
Try to smuggle a pack of coffee through EU customs. If you think the agricultural ministry can be bad, try messing with the tax people.
- imjk 12y ago
  Eh, I just returned from Jamaica with a bag of coffee and declared it on my customs form. The agent just waived me through.
phantom784 12y ago
"TSA officer and her barking dog" The TSA is the agency that checks you for weapons before you enter the airport. Customs & Immigration would care about the oranges, so the woman probably worked for them. "If you cross any state line, a human asks you if you’re carrying any fruits and vegetables." I've only ever heard of this happening when entering California.
- craigwblake 12y ago
  I've only ever heard of this happening when entering California. I've driven through 36 states and only seen this in California as well, and even then it's only on some highways entering California.
  - drdeadringer 12y ago
    > and even then it's only on some highways entering California When I entered California several times from the northern border with Oregon, it was like every other state-crossing to me -- oh, a state line, simply keep driving. When I heard about being stopped at the California border about a month ago on another social website, I was confused until informed that these border checks were more so along the edges with Nevada.
    - fennecfoxen 12y ago
      Interstate 80 has one because the big interstate tractor-trailers run along Interstate 80. The other, smaller highways around South Lake Tahoe and the like don't.
    - CocaKoala 12y ago
      Which route did you take from Oregon to California? My wife and I drove from Seattle to California after our wedding and when we entered CA on I-5, we were stopped. I initially thought it was a toll booth, so the guy at our car had a good laugh when he saw me opening up my wallet.
  - phantom784 12y ago
    The one time I drove into California, it was at like 6:00am or so and the station was closed, so I just drove through. And even then, it was pretty far in from the actual state line. Definitely not the most impenetrable border protection.
snake_plissken 12y ago
About 5 years ago In my early 20s I tried to bring some tulip bulbs back from the Netherlands. I bought them after the main season, in November when they no longer had the official inspection stamps on the packages. I declared one package of them and tried to bullshit the CPB lady about how the stamp fell off and how they were for my mom for her birthday. After some time I acquiesced and when she asked if I had any other bulbs, I took them out for her. I take comfort in knowing I have a record, somewhere deep in the bowls of Fort Meade or Bluffdale, of attempted agricultural products smuggling. Looking back on the tulips thing, I probably wouldn't try to do it again, not because I could get in trouble, but because I now know there is a slim chance I could introduce some random organism into a new ecosystem where it could wreak havoc. Yet at the same time, I can't tell if the whole no agricultural products rules for individuals crossing borders is bullshit or not. Almost all of the major invasive species in the US (snakefish, ashwood beetle, fire ants) were introduced via container ships.
samspot 12y ago
We went to Mexico for a day trip and brought an apple in our cooler. Our friends fed us so we never opened the cooler. We forgot at customs and said we had nothing to declare. Customs decided to search our cooler and found the apple. We explained that we had brought it with us but forgotten about it. When he said it was contaminated from being in Mexico, I thought he was telling a joke, but he was dead serious. Thankfully he just confiscated it and let us on our way.
deerpig 12y ago
The last time I visited the States I forgot that I had a half eaten tuna sandwhch that I'd bought in the departure lounge in Bangkok. I was detained for an hour and threatened with fines and jail time! An sweet elderly woman from Hong Kong was sitting next to me because she had forgotten that she had the equivilant of three dollars in loose change in the bottom of her purse which she hadn't declared. She couldn't speak any english and customs didn't even try to find a translator, they kept shouting at her at high speed with his hand on the baton on his belt as if he was going to pull it out and strike her. She was in tears. I tried to translate the best I could in my broken Cantonese in between trying to figure out what they had against tuna sandwiches. It was almost surrealistic. Customs in Mainland China, who are not the most enduring bunch of people on their best day were still orders of magnitude more polite and civil than what I saw that day. Last night I was in a bar in Phnom Penh and an American yelled at me because I didn't agree instantly that America was the greatest country on earth. I have nothing against America, I grew up there, and there are a lot of very decent kind people there. But I don't live there, and after a long string of incidents like the one with customs I can't honestly say that America is the greatest country on earth. There are places which are better and places that are much much worse. I've lived in both. My guess is that the guy yelling at me had something against tuna sandwiches as well....
- jlaurend 12y ago
  You're allowed to take up to $10,000 into the US without declaring it, I believe. I'm guessing they sent her to the room because they were afraid she was trying to illegally immigrate and just complaining about the money to try and rattle her. Some of the horror stories about US Customs are so ridiculous. When I came back from China last year through Toronto, they sent me to the room because they thought I was bringing food (even though I didn't declare any nor did I have any). Luckily the guy in the room there was more reasonable and let me go quickly without a hassle. Going through customs as an American is terrifying enough...can't imagine being a non-American. There's a lot of good and bad about America. Unfortunately customs is on the bad sad often times...which happens to be the first impression a lot of people get of the country.

108 points by gordon_freeman 12y ago

leoc 12y ago

Try taking a set of bagpipes into the US.

epochwolf 12y ago
Are you talking about this: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/05/bagpipes-new-hampshire-canada-customs-seized-ivory http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/05/bagpipes-new-ha... ?
- leoc 12y ago
  Yes!
maradori 12y ago
Are Kinder eggs still banned in the US? I remember my former manager got in lots of trouble trying to cross the border with some of them.
- dsl 12y ago
  Kinda. Kinder now has a line of chocolates that they sell in the US, but the "surprise eggs" are still banned. The problem is the eggs contain a small toy inside the chocolate, and small children either don't see it or don't know not to eat it. The EU is considering banning them too because they have had children die.
  - hvidgaard 12y ago
    I really, really do not understand this at all. If a child dies because of what is inside that Kinder Egg, the adult that was supposed to look after the child would be responsible. Take them in for neglect or whatever, but don't ban some legitimite fun for children with responsible parents. Any child that is young enough to put everything in his/hers mouth, should be superwised by an adult and be in an environment where there is no such things anyway.
  - Xylakant 12y ago
    I have yet to hear about a ban or about children dying from choking on surprise egg toys. It's totally possible and sadly happens that small kids choke on small items but in general Europeans regard it as the parents responsibility to keep their kids away from choking hazards.
  - Luc 12y ago
    "The EU" is not considering any such thing, where did you get that idea?
    - billpg 12y ago
      I heard they were going to make children wear goggles when playing conkers too!
    - vidarh 12y ago
      There was a campaign by a couple of parents, that culminated with the rejection of a ban back in 2000.
  - ivanca 12y ago
    Only 3 children have died by choking on it in all its history. To put this in perspective cows kill 20 people per year in the US.
    - thret 12y ago
      Someone's probably managed to choke to death on every popular type of treat. http://www.health-benefits-of-dark-chocolate.com/death-by-chocolate.html http://www.health-benefits-of-dark-chocolate.com/death-by-ch... "In 1910 a young woman dies while trying to share her chocolate with her co-workers. She attempted to cut the bar in pieces and instead slipped and cut an artery in her leg."
  - redacted 12y ago
    I am reminded of The Onion's take on such bans: http://www.theonion.com/articles/fun-toy-banned-because-of-three-stupid-dead-kids,290/ http://www.theonion.com/articles/fun-toy-banned-because-of-t...
  - darklajid 12y ago
    Nah. I really don't believe that this idea of a ban in the EU is supported by facts. For me these things are rather uninteresting, but dangerous? The inside is quite huge and yellow (a capsule of sorts, containing the real toy). Inside of that you might have small stuff/a real choking hazard, depending on what you get (some things need to be assembled from parts). My son is two. He wouldn't stuff that in his mouth. My daughter is 9 month old and stuffs everything in her mouth, so this is about as dangerous as ~everything~ in my household, including the toys of the 2 year old. Plus .. I personally think that kids that still cannot distinguish between edible or inedible things shouldn't have chocolatey treats in the first place, but that's a different problem. I mean, I guess the aluminum foil wrapping seems more dangerous to me then the toy inside, if we're talking about choke hazards.
  - MURICA11111 12y ago
    No, the EU is not.
  - vidarh 12y ago
    The EU rejected banning them in 2000 despite more than a decade of campaigning by parents of three children who died in the 80's from choking on parts of the toys [1] No further action appears to have been taken by the EU since, and I've not found any mentions of further deaths since either. Note that none of these three kids "did not see it". The toys in Kinder eggs are contained within large yellow containers, and none of the kids choked on the container, they choked on parts of the toy that they had taken out of the container. The kids in question were 3 and 4 years old. 3 and 4 year olds regularly play with small toys, and most know better by then. If the child doesn't know better by 3-4 than to put tiny plastic toys in their mouth, then it's frankly the parents responsibility to supervise them better - they'll come into constant contact with small objects they can choke on in all kinds of places. [1] http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Parents+hit+out+at+EU+over+tiny+deadly+toys.-a065156393 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Parents+hit+out+at+EU+over+tin...
lotsofmangos 12y ago
Or a Steinway piano. - http://www.today.com/id/30442451#.VG1nVYVb9hF http://www.today.com/id/30442451#.VG1nVYVb9hF
readerrrr 12y ago
So if you plan to take your laptop it is better to upload the disk image and buy a new one in the states? I'm assuming the TSA can force a foreigner to unlock and then copy the disk. Wow this is sick: http://www.humblelibertarian.com/2011/06/10-of-tsas-worst-actions.html http://www.humblelibertarian.com/2011/06/10-of-tsas-worst-ac... http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2014/07/07/the-tsas-worst-screening-change-yet-no-phones-without-charge/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2014/07/07/th... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba030UmbkCo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba030UmbkCo http://www.humblelibertarian.com/2011/05/nottheonion-tsa-searches-baby.html http://www.humblelibertarian.com/2011/05/nottheonion-tsa-sea...
- saryant 12y ago
  TSA has nothing to do with entry into the country—you don't encounter them on arrival unless you have an onward flight. CBP handles immigration and customs.
  - readerrrr 12y ago
    A simple web search shows that that isn't true. http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/travel-to-the-usa/global/en http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/travel-to-the-usa/g... http://www.imore.com/tsa-will-require-devices-be-charged-international-us-bound-flights http://www.imore.com/tsa-will-require-devices-be-charged-int... http://traveltips.usatoday.com/tsa-rules-international-travel-62791.html http://traveltips.usatoday.com/tsa-rules-international-trave...
    - hueving 12y ago
      I've entered the US through SeaTac, MSP, ATL, and SFO. In each of those, I never encountered TSA checkpoints until a connecting flight. If it is the final destination of your flight, you do not interact with TSA at all (unless you scream bomb in the airport or something).
      - eitally 12y ago

WildUtah 12y ago

A customs dog sniffed me out and his handler searched my bag in 2010. I had some chocolates infused with orange oil in my pack. She was satisfied but apparently you can't bring oranges into Mexico from the USA or vice versa. Since then I always pack breakfast for early morning flights across the border, but I'm careful to eat it before landing or leave it for the aeromozas to clean up.

vsloo 12y ago
A customs dog once sniffed out my gf's orange zest scented shampoo. Got cornered by some officers and had to empty my suitcase. Security isn't always this strict though so it's pretty inconsistent at best.

flashman 12y ago

Bill Bailey on Australian Customs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s5AF4ahrOk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s5AF4ahrOk

grecy 12y ago
Australia has extremely strict customs because the flora and fauna is unique and has been isolated from the rest of the world for millions of years. We also don't have things like Rabies, and we'd like to keep it that way.
- notjosh 12y ago
  FYI: Australia has "Australian bat lyssavirus" which is indeed a thing very much like rabies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_bat_lyssavirus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_bat_lyssavirus. It surprised me when I learned about its existence :)
- gadders 12y ago
  The UK doesn't have rabies either.
- jdmichal 12y ago
  Not that it matters. A bite from an Australian animal would kill you before the rabies kick in anyway.

bane 12y ago

I once had a fun experience. I was return to the U.S. after a stay in South Korea. My hosts gave me a box of grapes as a going away gift, I figured I'd eat them on the plane. Short story, I didn't. And I didn't throw them away. Customs asked me if I had any fruits, I told them yes I had grapes. They looked at each other and then looked at me. "Sir, we're going to have to see these grapes" "okay, if I'm not allowed to bring them in I can just toss 'em" quiet stare down while the other customs officer inspected my grapes "sir, where did you get these grapes?" "Korea" they turned to look at each other again, apparently I was bringing in the equivalent of a WMD about 5 minutes later the officer doing the inspection finally looked at the label "product of California, U.S.A." laughter ensued, I was given my grapes and allowed on through

razster 12y ago
Seems like someone could take advantage of this by making fake product labels.

gojomo 12y ago

Similar to the medfly 'Breeders' of this article, there's also informed speculation that covert actors are intentionally bringing Australian insects to California to destroy Eucalyptus trees. See: http://www.npr.org/2012/07/22/157189794/invasive-pests-or-tiny-biological-terrorists http://www.npr.org/2012/07/22/157189794/invasive-pests-or-ti...

Freeboots 12y ago
I wonder if that counts as biological warfare? I mean, theoretically you could really hurt an entire industry. A large Fruit Fly outbreak in certain countries could have really affect gdp
- trhway 12y ago
  >I wonder if that counts as biological warfare? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_against_the_potato_beetle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_against_the_potato_beetle i remember how we, schoolchildren, collected these beetles which "American imperialists send to destroy our potato crops". That could have easily been photo of me only i was in USSR, not in Eastern Germany http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_against_the_potato_beetle#German_Democratic_Republic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_against_the_potato_beetle#G... :)
  - paganel 12y ago
    Good memories! I did take part in that "war", only that for me it happened after the Wall had already fallen (somewhere in the mid-'90s) but the damn beetles were still doing their thing. It was me, my brother and our grand-mother collecting those damn insects all-day long somewhere in a Carpathian village.
    - trhway 12y ago
      in that case, being from Eastern-European country, you may find this entertaining (i suppose your former country has done the right thing - i.e. join the NATO :) given the way (pro-)Russian rebels appeared http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_potato_beetle#2014_pro-Russian_conflict_in_Ukraine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_potato_beetle#2014_pro... and (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribbon_of_Saint_George http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribbon_of_Saint_George)

Patrick_Devine 12y ago

OK, that explains produce. Why the War on Kinder Surprise? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder_Surprise http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder_Surprise

davidw 12y ago
My Italian friends think it's a bit odd that you can't buy one of those in the US, because they're dangerous for children, but you can let 9 year olds loose with fully automatic weapons, and of course buy all kinds of guns. I can't do much more than shrug: every place has its contradictions. Additionally: I personally hate the damn things. My kids love to get them because of the stupid surprise. Sometimes my daughter just ignores the chocolate completely. It's a bit of marketing akin to the McDonalds Happy Meal with the cheap plastic toy. A far greater injustice in the world is not being able to import prosciuttos and similar cured meats.
- moron4hire 12y ago
  >> but you can let 9 year olds loose with fully automatic weapons, and of course buy all kinds of guns. You really don't know how the US or guns work, do you?
  - davidw 12y ago
    Perhaps "loose" could be debated, but something like this would likely not happen in most European countries: http://www.snopes.com/info/news/uzi.asp http://www.snopes.com/info/news/uzi.asp And this kind of thing is much rarer: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/20/us/fsu-incident/index.html?hpt=hp_t2 http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/20/us/fsu-incident/index.html... I'm from the US and know quite well how things work. I'll also add this link, as I think it's an excellent, and nuanced view that a lot of people elsewhere don't know about or see: http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2008/04/guns.html http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2008/04/gun...
    - moron4hire 12y ago

gadders 12y ago

I had Fortnum and Masons Pork Pie taken from me by US Customs at Seattle Airpot :-(

samwillis 12y ago
I think thats the saddest things I have read today!
- gadders 12y ago
  It was a present for a Brit friend working at Amazon.

MrDosu 12y ago

Try to smuggle a pack of coffee through EU customs. If you think the agricultural ministry can be bad, try messing with the tax people.

imjk 12y ago
Eh, I just returned from Jamaica with a bag of coffee and declared it on my customs form. The agent just waived me through.

phantom784 12y ago

"TSA officer and her barking dog" The TSA is the agency that checks you for weapons before you enter the airport. Customs & Immigration would care about the oranges, so the woman probably worked for them. "If you cross any state line, a human asks you if you’re carrying any fruits and vegetables." I've only ever heard of this happening when entering California.

craigwblake 12y ago
I've only ever heard of this happening when entering California. I've driven through 36 states and only seen this in California as well, and even then it's only on some highways entering California.
- drdeadringer 12y ago
  > and even then it's only on some highways entering California When I entered California several times from the northern border with Oregon, it was like every other state-crossing to me -- oh, a state line, simply keep driving. When I heard about being stopped at the California border about a month ago on another social website, I was confused until informed that these border checks were more so along the edges with Nevada.
  - fennecfoxen 12y ago
    Interstate 80 has one because the big interstate tractor-trailers run along Interstate 80. The other, smaller highways around South Lake Tahoe and the like don't.
  - CocaKoala 12y ago
    Which route did you take from Oregon to California? My wife and I drove from Seattle to California after our wedding and when we entered CA on I-5, we were stopped. I initially thought it was a toll booth, so the guy at our car had a good laugh when he saw me opening up my wallet.
- phantom784 12y ago
  The one time I drove into California, it was at like 6:00am or so and the station was closed, so I just drove through. And even then, it was pretty far in from the actual state line. Definitely not the most impenetrable border protection.

snake_plissken 12y ago

About 5 years ago In my early 20s I tried to bring some tulip bulbs back from the Netherlands. I bought them after the main season, in November when they no longer had the official inspection stamps on the packages. I declared one package of them and tried to bullshit the CPB lady about how the stamp fell off and how they were for my mom for her birthday. After some time I acquiesced and when she asked if I had any other bulbs, I took them out for her. I take comfort in knowing I have a record, somewhere deep in the bowls of Fort Meade or Bluffdale, of attempted agricultural products smuggling. Looking back on the tulips thing, I probably wouldn't try to do it again, not because I could get in trouble, but because I now know there is a slim chance I could introduce some random organism into a new ecosystem where it could wreak havoc. Yet at the same time, I can't tell if the whole no agricultural products rules for individuals crossing borders is bullshit or not. Almost all of the major invasive species in the US (snakefish, ashwood beetle, fire ants) were introduced via container ships.

samspot 12y ago

We went to Mexico for a day trip and brought an apple in our cooler. Our friends fed us so we never opened the cooler. We forgot at customs and said we had nothing to declare. Customs decided to search our cooler and found the apple. We explained that we had brought it with us but forgotten about it. When he said it was contaminated from being in Mexico, I thought he was telling a joke, but he was dead serious. Thankfully he just confiscated it and let us on our way.

deerpig 12y ago

The last time I visited the States I forgot that I had a half eaten tuna sandwhch that I'd bought in the departure lounge in Bangkok. I was detained for an hour and threatened with fines and jail time! An sweet elderly woman from Hong Kong was sitting next to me because she had forgotten that she had the equivilant of three dollars in loose change in the bottom of her purse which she hadn't declared. She couldn't speak any english and customs didn't even try to find a translator, they kept shouting at her at high speed with his hand on the baton on his belt as if he was going to pull it out and strike her. She was in tears. I tried to translate the best I could in my broken Cantonese in between trying to figure out what they had against tuna sandwiches. It was almost surrealistic. Customs in Mainland China, who are not the most enduring bunch of people on their best day were still orders of magnitude more polite and civil than what I saw that day. Last night I was in a bar in Phnom Penh and an American yelled at me because I didn't agree instantly that America was the greatest country on earth. I have nothing against America, I grew up there, and there are a lot of very decent kind people there. But I don't live there, and after a long string of incidents like the one with customs I can't honestly say that America is the greatest country on earth. There are places which are better and places that are much much worse. I've lived in both. My guess is that the guy yelling at me had something against tuna sandwiches as well....

jlaurend 12y ago
You're allowed to take up to $10,000 into the US without declaring it, I believe. I'm guessing they sent her to the room because they were afraid she was trying to illegally immigrate and just complaining about the money to try and rattle her. Some of the horror stories about US Customs are so ridiculous. When I came back from China last year through Toronto, they sent me to the room because they thought I was bringing food (even though I didn't declare any nor did I have any). Luckily the guy in the room there was more reasonable and let me go quickly without a hassle. Going through customs as an American is terrifying enough...can't imagine being a non-American. There's a lot of good and bad about America. Unfortunately customs is on the bad sad often times...which happens to be the first impression a lot of people get of the country.