# My wife got arrested today



## rescuepenguin (Apr 21, 2010)

The day start out ok. prempitorystrike and her younger child came over to our house. We all got into our van and I got dropped off at Guildford Mall with the kids and my wife (BettaGirl) and prempitorystrike went to the states shopping.

Before I continue BettaGirl is 9 months pregnant.

At the border heading into the states the ladies were all of a sudden ordered to put their hands on the dash board. They asked for the keys to the van. The border crossing was closed, and the van was surrounded by border guards. Just like in the TV shows they heard "Driver get out of the vehicle, hands on your head and walk backwards". She was handcuffed and taken to a holding cell. prempitorystrike was arrested immediately after and also taken to a cell.

They were held while border guards were verifying whether or not they had got the right person. They searched our van in the mean time. After about 30 mins they were released

They were finally informed that someone with the same name and birth date as BettaGirl was wanted. The ladies were treated with respect the whole time, and received a big apology after the incident.


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## Ursus sapien (Apr 21, 2010)

My heart goes out to BettaGirl and prempitorystrike, and especially the kids- how utterly terrifying.

I've been the subject of border hospitality; it's why I don't go back.


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## IceBlue (Mar 17, 2011)

Must have been pretty traumatic at the time, but now they have an awesome story to tell. At least they didn't tear the van apart.


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## rescuepenguin (Apr 21, 2010)

Storm,

The children were with me at Guildford mall. They didn't take any children with them. I would have loved to have seen their reaction if she went into labour at the time.


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## Ursus sapien (Apr 21, 2010)

rescuepenguin said:


> Storm,
> 
> The children were with me at Guildford mall. They didn't take any children with them. I would have loved to have seen their reaction if she went into labour at the time.


Thanks, I'm glad I read that wrong!


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## mikebike (Sep 8, 2010)

I got the 'royal treatment' from them a couple of weeks ago.
I was wearing the black vest I always wear with my HOG (Harley Owners Group) name tag.
After the automatic 30 min wait before interviewing.
They wanted to know what all the pins I had on my vest were and was I affiliated.

They need to take care of the terrorist<G>


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

I had a car accident where I was cut off twice by the same person. A cop showed up and did the same thing to me. I wasn't traumatized by the gun pointed at me and the orders, but I didn't appreciate it at all.


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## davefrombc (Apr 21, 2010)

Guess they read there was some sorta fishy person trying to cross into the US.. Can't be too careful


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## alexafg (Oct 31, 2011)

*terrorist*



mikebike said:


> I got the 'royal treatment' from them a couple of weeks ago.
> I was wearing the black vest I always wear with my HOG (Harley Owners Group) name tag.
> After the automatic 30 min wait before interviewing.
> They wanted to know what all the pins I had on my vest were and was I affiliated.
> ...


what does " TERRORIST " means ?


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## mikebike (Sep 8, 2010)

Terrorism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia





en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism


Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion.


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## onefishtwofish (Apr 21, 2010)

well the trick at the border is when you are in the waiting room waiting to be called into the room for your strip search to put your bag of hash on the window ledge behind you, then when they r busy searching your freind, you pick it up and put it back in your pocket.............that was what a friend did .............lol. but those guards can be very scary. glad all was ok. and i didnt know you guys were pregnant again! congats


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## hlee72ca (Jun 29, 2010)

Steve, I'm glad that your wife is ok, those customs agents on both sides of the border are all paranoid, especially the younger ones. The older ones just ask you a couple of questions then let you through.


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## Gregzz4 (Jun 25, 2010)

alexafg said:


> what does " TERRORIST " means ?


OK, alexafg...
I gotta step in here.

I don't like to get involved in political skirmishes, and hope this goes over with the mods....

I think we all got the meaning of the terrorist comment. No reason to get bent out of shape over it. We are all equal on this Continent, and we are all subject to the same laws.
We are all also subject to the same restrictions and ridicule.

The term 'terrorist' used to only be applied to extremists outside of this continent. Since 9/11, many people have adopted it as an analogy to describe certain _groups_ of people, instead of certain _kinds of people_.

Nobody is happy with this, and sometimes comments come out with a certain amount of vague-ness.

The gist of mikebike's comment is the border guards have to check all the bikers too, not just us regular people of suspicious nature.

mikebike stated a very valid complaint that we all have...a very _blanketed_, or wide-enveloping, comment that is fully understood all over North America, and not aimed at any one group or kind, race, creed or skin color of people.
We have all had many of our rights taken away due to terrorism. It's not a personal affront to anyone in particular when we say 'terrorist'.

mikebike used a term I have used since long before 9/11. It's a pretty common term, and you should get over it. It has nothing to do with how we feel about our neighbors.

Hell, when I go across the border in my '78 GMC 1/2T, with my 355HP crate motor rumbling, I am questioned just as much as the next guy.
They are suspicious of everyone.

Any one of us could be a 'terrorist'.

Doesn't mean we don't get along.


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Thank goodness your wife didn't have a baby right there and then. While it would have "served" the customs officers "right", that is a less than ideal time and place to have a baby. Probably would have made the international news though

My own "border" story is that one night after playing floor hockey and just having come back from a 10 days shift on a fish farm up near Powell River, I went across the border to Blaine to pick up cheap gas. I had 10 DAYS of nasty, stinky fishfarming gear covered in mort juice and old feed in garbage bags in the back of my old 4Runner (with the back tailgate inoperative). I then filled up 6 jerry cans with cheap gas and covered those up with garbage bags. So here I am crossing the border back into Canada when I get stopped by the border guards as they're doing a training exercise. I then waited an hour while a dozen trainees crawled through my passenger side door and went through all those garbage bags and nasty fishfarming dirty laundry one at a time. Me, I stood back and enjoyed it. I was on my days off and this was funny as heLL to me. Good test to see if they were serious about wanting to do this for a living

However, because I hate line ups and the hassle at the border, I almost never go there any more.

Give your wife a big hug and tell her now she has her own "border" story to share with her friends.

Anthony


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## Elle (Oct 25, 2010)

Glad she's OK! US border guards are cowboys (and not in a good way). I've had a few go rounds with them, and my dad has had many many more! I try NOT to cross the border at all now if I can help it. Too much hassle.

1) I went down for a conference in Vegas last year. I was only going to be down there for 3 days, so I just packed a carry on. Apparently this is suspicious behavior if you are female. I got yanked out of line at US customs/security in YVR and marched off to a room containing the giant "machine that goes PING!". They asked why I wasn't checking luggage, I explained I was going to a conference, short stay, yadda yadda. They scan my bag, finding nothing unusual. Then the pimply faced little dweeb of a customs agent looks at me and goes "oh, I thought women always packed more clothes than this?". I NEARLY told him that I was attending a nudist conference.

2) Djamm and I did a road trip through the Kootenays and down to eastern WA last year with the dog. On the way past Kootenay lake, we picked up some nice rocks and a few branches for the fish tank and put them in the empty sandwich cooler. We crossed the border at Rossland, where there is lots of paranoia about drug smuggling (pot). You can tell how seriously the US takes their border security by looking at their border post vs. the Canadian one at this crossing. Canada has put up a crappy little shack. It looks like an outhouse. Two grungy looking guys are jammed into said crappy shack. The US has a flashy clean building with flags all over the place in case you haven't clued in what country you're visiting, and the border guards are all scrubbed and shiny. Also, they are convinced that we are smuggling mad cow in our dog food, or drugs in our rocks. They open the trunk and ask "why do you have rocks in this lunch kit?". I explain that we have fish. They don't get it, but they can't figure out a way to tell us that the rocks are contraband, so we get to keep them. Not so much with the dog food. That, we are told, must go back across the border. Oh, and the dead sticks might have plant disease, so those have to go back too. Just turn around folks, and drive back and leave all that nasty stuff in Canada and then try again. Tell the other guys (the CA border dudes) that we told you to do this. We get back to the Canadian border, muttering all the way, and explain to the Canadian guards, who think it's amusing. We ask if they can use the dog food (it was good food), but they aren't allowed. We ask what they want us to do with it. Apparently it's against the law to put it in their garbage, so some head scratching ensues.They finally tell us to dirve just around the corner where they can't see us, and dump it in the wqoods. At this point I ask them if they realized that every bear in the vicinity would be visiting them looking for the free food, and that this is a dumb idea for many many reasons. Nope, sorry, gotta do that. Grrrr. So we do this, get back to the US border, and drive off with the dog looking sadly back at where her dinner disappeared. We had to stop at a US pet store first thing (where we bought the EXACT SAME dog food), the silent guilt trip was so awful. What enraged me the most was how pointless the whole exercise was.


Then there's my dad. His stories are worse.

1) About 45 years ago, my dad was taking my uncle (his younger brother) down to visit relatives in WA. At the time, my dad was about 20, my uncle was 15. They refuse my uncle entry at the border because they said he was a Communist. My dad considered leaving him at the border, but Grandma would have been mad, so he had to go back home with him. Yes, a 15 year old Communist! We're all still puzzling over that one nearly 50 years later.

2) When I was about 15, we had an old, nasty and selectively incontinent cat. He was a revenge pisser, and shoes were his target of choice. My family made this kind of easy for him, because all the shoes lived in a giant heap by the door. This included my dad's dress shoes. Dad was going on a business trip to the US. He gets up at 5AM to catch his flight, and neglects to feed the cat. The cat seizes his moment when my dad is packing and pees in his dress shoes. Dad doesn't notice and packs them anyway. He then doesn't actually end up wearing them. Instead they fester in the end compartment of his bag for 3 days until he's packing to go home. They smell so awful that he doesn't unpack them, he just jams a plastic bag down over them. When he gets to customs, he gets a snarly agent who demands that he open the bag. Dad's response as the agent reaches for the shoe pocket is "I wouldn't do that if I were you". Which is totally the wrong thing to say. Agent A calls over Agent B and they open the bag...and are nearly knocked flat by the horrible smell. They then proceed to blame my dad for setting them up, because everyone around them laughed.


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## thefishwife (Apr 21, 2010)

Very glad to hear your wife and the other person were treated well, and even had an apology. I am sure it was a very scary moment for them both!!

BTW - congrats on being a Dad


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## bingerz (Mar 3, 2011)

Rescue, Sorry to hear your wife and her friend had to go through something like that. I'd be so freaked out if that kinda thing happened to me. It's good know that they were treated with respect and apologized to afterwards. 

I've also gotta give it to the border patrol too. I mean that's what they're there for....to protect the citizens from both countries. I mean even though it was an honest mistake. Its good to know that there's ppl on top of it and they're ensuring our safety.


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## mikebike (Sep 8, 2010)

Hello All,
the important thing to remember is the fact that they are there to protect our countries and are just doing there job.
Although sometime with a little more zeal than required.

I was doing a commercial importation of used business phones in the early 1980's.
The Canadian border guard at the 'commercial' inspections looked in the back of my van with 500 business phones in various stages of disassembly and picked out one of 2 new ones.
His remark was he was going to "Make My Day", I think he was related to Dirty Harry.

He grabbed the rule book and started citing thing he could charge me with and duties he could impose.

I told him fine, I will be at the Tudor Inn across the road and will come back after lunch.

He eventually OK's my original paperwork.


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## cpool (Apr 30, 2010)

I cross al the time and my wife even more. She buys most of our grocies over there (and why not you only save 50% or so) and never have a problem. I think the more you go over the less likely you are to have an issue. I have more issue with getting back into Canada than going ot the states. 

It makes me so mad becasue if I am ever travelling with my kids and not my wife, they assume I kidnapped my kids. I don't get it. Is their a warrent out for my arrest or something. I have to show a letter that says I can travel with them? Why they are my freaken kids not someone elses. Since when am I guilty before being proved innocent? My wife goes accross with my kids all the time and is never asked for a letter from me saying she can travel with them. I mean can you say sexual profiling? Does a man never travel with his kids and not the wife? Frusterates me so much. I don't want to get gain probed but I certainly let them know I am not happy about it.


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## TomC (Apr 21, 2010)

SeaHorse_Fanatic said:


> Thank goodness your wife didn't have a baby right there and then.


 The kid would have been born with dual citizenship AND a police record.


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## rescuepenguin (Apr 21, 2010)

Thank you everyone who replied. Yes it was scary for everyone involved including the border guards themselves. I think every reasonable person does reconise the need for law enforcement personnel to be extra careful and protect themselves. My wife's friend, who many people on this forum have met, had a little extra time to see what was going on. She figures that they closed the crossing to free up extra guards to assist with the arrests. If my wife was the person on the wanted list, she could have been very violent, and armed.

In the end my wife was more upset over slipping in the doggy doo once the shopping spree started. They did advise her as to what to say and do next time so she does not get a repeat performance. 

Cpool it can be frustrating, but if their over abundance of caution allows them to rescue even one kidnapped child isn't it worth it?

Steve


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## Elle (Oct 25, 2010)

cpool, does she have to pay duty on the groceries if she just crosses for a few hours? I've been seriously thinking about going across at Sumas and stocking up on organic butter from a dairy there.


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

TomC said:


> The kid would have been born with dual citizenship AND a police record.


I was thinking the exact same thing:bigsmile:

Either that or be a "stateless" person with a police record


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

I'm glad that your wife is okay and has taken it in good humour. It sounds like a very stressful situation.



rescuepenguin said:


> Thank you everyone who replied. Yes it was scary for everyone involved including the border guards themselves. I think every reasonable person does reconise the need for law enforcement personnel to be extra careful and protect themselves. My wife's friend, who many people on this forum have met, had a little extra time to see what was going on. She figures that they closed the crossing to free up extra guards to assist with the arrests. If my wife was the person on the wanted list, she could have been very violent, and armed.
> 
> In the end my wife was more upset over slipping in the doggy doo once the shopping spree started. They did advise her as to what to say and do next time so she does not get a repeat performance.
> 
> ...


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## rich16 (Mar 25, 2011)

I cross the border quite frequently - to Pt. Roberts for gas and groceries, and to Seattle to visit my parents. Knock on wood, we've never had an incident - there have been border agents who I would likely be a smart ass with if they were anything else BUT border agents. 

I agree that the letter to travel with my kids is a giant PITA, but I'd still rather that...my only issue is - they never ask for the damn thing!

One funny story tho - heading south to visit family with my oldest boy Cameron(then 5). US Border agent asks me to open up the side door on the mini van (yeah, that's how I roll...). Agent points to Cam and asks who I am.

Cam looks at me, smiles, and says "That's doodlebug!!"

Agent laughs (yes, they CAN laugh!) and waves me through.

All in all - tough job, I wouldn't want to do it.


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## cpool (Apr 30, 2010)

Elle said:


> cpool, does she have to pay duty on the groceries if she just crosses for a few hours? I've been seriously thinking about going across at Sumas and stocking up on organic butter from a dairy there.


Nope never, they can't charge duty on groceries *or* anything manufactured in North America. By the way Go thru 264th as it is likely closer (your signiture says North Shore) as they have a dairy about 30 seconds past the border crossing and it is the same as the one in Sumas. And yes half price or less for dairy is so worth it. Other things that are redicoulously cheep their are things like: cereal, it is less than half for the exact same stuff in Canada, and Chicken. Seriously a whole chicken for 99 cents a pound (and if you shop at Fred Meyers the sell the hormon free, antibiotic free chickens for that price). What is goes on sale for like 1.99 a pound in Canada. I laugh when I look at the prices sale price of chicken in a flyer. And Gas is the one thing that makes it all worth while.


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## cpool (Apr 30, 2010)

rescuepenguin said:


> Cpool it can be frustrating, but if their over abundance of caution allows them to rescue even one kidnapped child isn't it worth it?
> 
> Steve


I think it is great that they want to stop kids from being kidnapped, but why won't they ask my wife for a letter if she is travelling alone with them? And why is it up to me to prove I am not kidnapping my own kids? I could understand if it was someone elses kids that I am travelling with, but come on, my own kids. It is just plain dumb. I mean if the police pull me over without my wife I don't have to have letter saying it is ok for me to travel with them in my car in Canada, why should the border be any different? Has their ever been a warrent out for my arrest for me for Kidnapping? Nope. It frusterates me to know end. I just play dumb when they ask for it and try my hardest to be a pain in their rears. It is kind of like a game to me. I know they can't refuse me entry into my own country and if my and my kids have to sit thier for an hour while they try to get ahold on my wife, we don't have anything planned at that point anyway.  Then I make a big deal after they say you are ok, and I am like, that is what I said in the first place. Ironically they have know way of knowing who is on the other end on the phone and if I was kidnapping my own kids I could easily have someone pose as my wife and say it is ok for me to travel with them. They have know way of verifying that info. And to me for that reason it is a big joke.


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

i found the border crossing in van there the agents are the rudest and biggest a-holes i have dealt with. And cant say is cause it is a stressful job i was a bouncer for ten years dealing with drunks i was not a jerk there is no excuse for the way they treat people .


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