Problems in customs... (1 Viewer)

[Atticus.]

anyone ever had any problems in customs?

let me tell you my horror story
let me set the scene, its december 2001 and 911 is still fresh in everones mind. airports are on lockdown with security any attempt to take things like knives and scissors onto a plane means big fucking trouble. this is especially the case in singapore airport with guards walking around in packs of four all carrying assault rifles, magnum hand guns, grenades, tear gas and an 8 inch hunting knife...

so my family just finished a one week stop over holiday in singapore (coming home from london) and were about to come home... so because mum bought so much stuff she couldnt fit the toiletry bag into the main suitcase so without telling me she put it in my carry on bag... in this bag was an assortment of thing, nail files, pocket knife, scissors...

so enter me in the story... i pick up the bag and carry it on my back and have it scanned in the x ray machine... no probs i keep walking and i notice that there is a squad of four soldiers behind me and another four approaching me from in front... so i stop and think "what the fuck is going on"
mum looks back and see's me get roughly grabbed by an armed guard and dragged into a nearby room... she freaks but there is nothing she can do

the guards sit me in the room and leave. im alone for 2 mins when an american comes in and asks me whats in my bag... i tell him everything except the toiletry bag (because i obviously didnt know it was in there)
he asks me if i packed the bag and i say "yes"
he asks me if anyone else could have touched it and i say "no"

he opens the bag under the table and procures a pair of scissors a pocket knife and a nail file and informs me that these are all considered weapons and are prohibited...

i explain what happened and that my mum must have packed it and he says "you told me no one packed it except you and that no one could have touched it"
i stutter some incoherent shit about how i didnt know and that he can keep them

after a while he leaves and im left alone

he then comes back and informs me im free to go

i walk outside to find my mum crying and my dad trying to console her

that is the end of this story...

anyone else had any horror customs stories?

 

[iamsickofyear12]

We have come back from Bali a couple times with multiple bb-guns in our suitcases. Once we came back from bali with at least one bb-gun in every suitcase except one and they randomly searched the suitcase without one. That was pretty lucky.

We would bring back a couple rifle bb-guns and a couple shotgun bb-guns and a whole bunch of handgun bb-guns. Can't really do that anymore.

 

[tomorrows_angel]

my father was dragged off to an interrogation room at gunpoint in singapore. He said he got told to stand up against the wall with guns aimed at him, his bag was on the table in the room. Then this guy comes in and starts putting on a pair of gloves...
he said he was almost shitting himself. Then the guy started slowly going through his bag. It was funny when he told us that.

apparently they thought he was some major terrorist or something cos he had no luggage, only his one hand luggage bag. that was cos he was travellign heaps and was based in singapore, so he'd come home and visit us at the weekend, and only bring his laptop, leave the rest of the stuff in his hotel room.

hehe would have loved to see his face then...

 

[xeuyrawp]

anyone ever had any problems in customs?

let me tell you my horror story
let me set the scene, its december 2001 and 911 is still fresh in everones mind. airports are on lockdown with security any attempt to take things like knives and scissors onto a plane means big fucking trouble. this is especially the case in singapore airport with guards walking around in packs of four all carrying assault rifles, magnum hand guns, grenades, tear gas and an 8 inch hunting knife...

so my family just finished a one week stop over holiday in singapore (coming home from london) and were about to come home... so because mum bought so much stuff she couldnt fit the toiletry bag into the main suitcase so without telling me she put it in my carry on bag... in this bag was an assortment of thing, nail files, pocket knife, scissors...

so enter me in the story... i pick up the bag and carry it on my back and have it scanned in the x ray machine... no probs i keep walking and i notice that there is a squad of four soldiers behind me and another four approaching me from in front... so i stop and think "what the fuck is going on"
mum looks back and see's me get roughly grabbed by an armed guard and dragged into a nearby room... she freaks but there is nothing she can do

the guards sit me in the room and leave. im alone for 2 mins when an american comes in and asks me whats in my bag... i tell him everything except the toiletry bag (because i obviously didnt know it was in there)
he asks me if i packed the bag and i say "yes"
he asks me if anyone else could have touched it and i say "no"

he opens the bag under the table and procures a pair of scissors a pocket knife and a nail file and informs me that these are all considered weapons and are prohibited...

i explain what happened and that my mum must have packed it and he says "you told me no one packed it except you and that no one could have touched it"
i stutter some incoherent shit about how i didnt know and that he can keep them

after a while he leaves and im left alone

he then comes back and informs me im free to go

i walk outside to find my mum crying and my dad trying to console her

that is the end of this story...

anyone else had any horror customs stories?

That's pretty bad. I've had a few bad experiences when my Dad lived in Malaysia, although once he bribed a customs guy because he got caught with a box of some rare Malaysian fruit.

My step mum sent me a PostCard for my birthday that was a photo of a greek statue. The lady in the statue was naked, and the Malaysians had actually gone over her private parts with texta. Not only did they do that, but they open most outgoing mail and go through it.

Had nothing happen to me at the airport, though.

 

[Meads]

when i was going through customs in singapore the bastard would not let me finish my big mac

 

[xeuyrawp]

when i was going through customs in singapore the bastard would not let me finish my big mac

hah, he was probably just hungry himself.

When my dad lived in Malaysia, he was only on a 6 Month Visa. So what he did was drive the 30 minute trip to singapore, get a coffee, and come back, having left the country and getting his visa renewed.

 

[William_Lawry]

what a sneaky devil

 

[katietheskatie]

not really .. my best friend got her beef jerky confiscated when we came back from los angeles. they didn't even check my cereal (yes i brought a box of cereal back to australia, hahah), i could've had all kinds of shit in that box!

 

[SashatheMan]

thats why u should just put all the bags in, so u have nothing with you

 

[William_Lawry]

ive brought fireworks back from thailand cause my dads a pilot and their bags dont get checked and my cousin works for customs so he checks our bags

 

[iambored]

<insert story here>

sdfsdfs

 

[go_swans]

not really .. my best friend got her beef jerky confiscated when we came back from los angeles. they didn't even check my cereal (yes i brought a box of cereal back to australia, hahah), i could've had all kinds of shit in that box!

WHaaaaat? they let u bring it back?? did u declare it or anything? cuz the quarantine pplz had a bitch wen i brought back hersheys and jelly bellys from LA!! how come you can bring cereal?? not fair!

 

[xeuyrawp]

WHaaaaat? they let u bring it back??

SHe obviously felates better than you.

 

[go_swans]

they were females that i was dealing with.. which is quite scary when u think about the meaning of the word "fellatio"

 

[Atticus.]

sdfsdfs

what does that mean?

 

[iambored]

what does that mean?

it means to your story and the rest is code for "this 10character limit sux" or more likely "i need to fill 10 characters"

 

[Atticus.]

ahh thankyou... i thought it was an abreviation for something...

 

[waterfowl]

Not really a horror story - but on my way out of Sydney just after walking through customs I got asked to show my boarding pass and was randomly selected for a 'bomb test'.
I was asked if I speak English (thought it would have been obvious) and shown this piece of laminated paper that explained what I had been selected to do. I then had this weird vacuum cleaner type thing run over me and I had to open my bag and the thing was run over that. The lady then took the thing over to a machine which cleared me of having any residual crap from bombs :S

 

[sugaryblue]

Not really a horror story - but on my way out of Sydney just after walking through customs I got asked to show my boarding pass and was randomly selected for a 'bomb test'.
I was asked if I speak English (thought it would have been obvious) and shown this piece of laminated paper that explained what I had been selected to do. I then had this weird vacuum cleaner type thing run over me and I had to open my bag and the thing was run over that. The lady then took the thing over to a machine which cleared me of having any residual crap from bombs :S

hehe don't be scared, that's quite standard. I work at the airside, and i soemtimes got selected for these random bomb tests too.

 

[William_Lawry]

i got selected for one of those drug screening test at heathrow airport..