Question of the Day

[Ms.Huxtable]

I know I'm being a Q of the D hog, but I really want to hear your stories of border crossings.

Coming home from Albany last summer, Double B, his brother and girlfriend and moi, were stopped at the border for a random check. In our trunk they found a grinder. They tested the residue on it and yes, it has traces of pot on it. There was their probable cause. We were separtated and couldn't speak to one another. Each of us were taken into a room, one at a time. All the others saw while sitting outside the room was the border officers entering the room wearing rubber gloves. Beads of sweat started to appear on all our foreheads. We were indeed strip-searched. Even our bathroom stops were monitored and we couldn't flush until it was checked. BB's brother's girlfriend was the only one of us that refused to be strip searched in lieu of calling a lawyer. I think she ended up being searched anyways. Now, we had nothing to hide because all the sheet was gone before returning home. They of course, found nothing on us and nothing else in the vehicle (a dog went through it as well). They had us educate them on how to use the grinder and then (surprisingly) they gave it back to us and sent us on our way home. They warned us that had we been caught with the grinder entering the States it would have had a very different outcome.

We were all very relieved after a lengthy and stressful stay at the border. We laughed all the way home at the fact that we actually taught them something new!

Hopefully, that won't happe again. I for one am a lot more cautious these days. No more paraphenialia.

How 'bout you?

[CharlieDon'tSurf]

being completely useless in the rolling department, I can appreciate the ergonomics and convenience of paraphenalia...

while travelling (domestic or otherwise), however, I prefer to suck it up and go without any prostheses just for the sake of avoiding any security-check hassles...

what are the chances that Joe BorderGuy went out, bought a 'Bud Buddy' Metal Herb Grinder at the HeadShop and is showing its wonders off to his pals as we type?

[CyberHippie]

Crazy story, mine isn't quite as crazy, but still a lesson well learned...

We were crossing the NB/Maine border for Lemonwheel. At the last gas station stop I discovered I had forgotten a pipe and a little weed in my backpack (really it was unintentional). So I figured I'd better take it out of my backpack, at first I was just gonna put it in my cargo pocket, thinking that I've only ever been in vehicle searches, they never search your person. I decided to air on the side of caution, and "crotched it".

We rolled up to the border at around 2:30am, and there was one single window. Very small crossing. "You going to Lemonwheel? Pull over!" So we all got out of the van and they led us into the building while they commenced the searching of the van. Boy was I ever glad it took the weed and pipe outta my backpack. No here was the part I wasn't ready for. They began to interrogate us... Turns out one of our group had a narcotics possession incident on his record.. Uh oh... I sat there and watched as they grabbed the first of our group, put on work gloves and began to search him (not a strip search though). He had to empty all his pockets and wallet, and had a very thorough touchy feely search. With that search they would find my stash for sure. It was about then that I began to shit bricks...

I was eventually pulled aside for my turn. First I emptied my wallet. Damn I was lucky, I had no rolling papers in there! Next emptying all my pockets... I had eaten a chocolate bar earlier and still had a little foil in my pocket, the dude opened up the foil and it was brown inside. Oh shit! He got very suspicious, eventually I was able to convice him that it was Kit-Kat reminents. Now the physical search... Man I bet some people would pay to be felt up like that. But, somehow he didn't manage to find the pipe and weed. The whole while I was absoutely shaking like a leaf, I thought I was so fucked! But in the end they found nothing and we were sent merrily on our way...

We were so lucky! I realized that I would have not only been screwing myself, but I would have screwed things for my whole crew. I would not have been a popular person let me tell ya...

So... Never again will I tempt fate and bring anything across the border. That could have been a much harder lesson learned that day. The phish mojo must have been out in full force...

[CyberHippie]

My take on it is, no matter who has it, or where it's found I think everyone kinda gets screwed... They'll have to let the 'innocents' go sooner or later, but I would think it would be pretty miserable for everyone in the party...

I could be wrong though.

[Chewie]

this guy i know from niagara got pinched at the border going to the wheel and they confiscated the drugs (almost a oz of shrooms) and gave him a 500 US fine and told him he couldn't enter the country.

you don't wanna know what this crazy fuck did afterwards...he swam the river and hitchhiked to the show.

he is a friend of a friend and my buddy said he was just walking along the campground and BOOM! there's his friend.

crazy eh?

[arcane]

Can't comment on issue of who gets busted, but the folks at the border can deny you entry for any reason they like.

[show---whore]

This is why i stay in Canada and hardly ever go to the states. The border crossing i have done have been eazy i've never been seached. my porblems begin once in side the U.S. dealing with state tropers who love pick of Canadians the dealing with most of

the people there.

[Thumpin]

I have never had any problem going down to the states. The key is finding out what the nearest professional sporting event is and then pulling up to the boarder, telling them that's where you are going, that you just can't wait to see the Mariners kick the shit out of those florida marlins or whatever. Never been stopped and searched going down.

Once coming back from Sugarbush 95' a pipe was discovered which led to a three hour delay. I don't think they actually care, it just seems to be exercising power when your in the position and have cause to. They asked us whose it was until the owner fessed up. My real border story begins with this exact same individual who was living in Alberta at the time. He decided he would just hop over the boarder in his orange 72 VW van to pick up some cheap gas, busted, a roach led to three days in jail and a $1500, he was paraded through the town day after day to the courthouse in an orange prison jumpsuit, leg shackles and handcuffs. Three days later after paying the fine, getting his real clothes and van back he took off for the Canadian boarder, home sweet home. Vw, Dreads, pull over son, Busted, the american authorities had failed to find an 1/8 he had rolled up in the glove compartment of all places, he was fined, I think it was around $2000 by the canadian authorities. Poor guy, five minutes for cheap gas turned into three days and four thousand dollars.

[Ms.Huxtable]

That story made me sweat! Holy shit. I wasn't that worried because I knew we had nothing to hide, but sheesh. Man you were lucky indeed. You should have played the Super 7 that week.

[bradm]

I've never done a border crossing for a show, so I have a couple of questions:

- If some illegal substance is found in the car (rather than in the possession of one of the passengers), who gets busted? The driver, the owner, everybody?

- If some illegal substance is found in the possession of one of the passengers, are the other passengers in any trouble (assuming they weren't in possession of anything illegal)?

Thanks,

BRAD (Border Requests About Drugs)

[bradm]

Arcane and I went to Burlington, VT., this past weekend for the Nero show.

We drove down using the "go to Montreal and turn right" route, crossing into Vermont from Quebec. Going in, we had an OK time with the U.S. border guards, no hassles beyond what's expected.

We came back along Rte. 11 across NY state, entering Canada at Cornwall.

We get to the booth, and the guard asks us our citizenship; we said we Canadian. He asked us where we lived; we said Ottawa. He asked us how long we'd been out of the country; we said 24 hours. He asked us if we had anything to declare; Arcane said about $8 of stuff, I said about $40.

"OK, have a nice day."

"Uh, here are our passports..."

"No, don't worry about it. Have a nice day." and he waved us through.

It actually takes longer to read all that than it took to live it. We weren't even using the Jedi Mind Trick, and had a Phish show (7/5/94, Ottawa) going over the stereo. (We resisted the temptation to go back into the U.S., roll up the windows, light up a cigar, and let the car fill up with smoke to come billowing out of the window when we got back to the booth...)

The only thing I can figure is that he figured that with the more stringent checks going into the U.S.A., anybody who's coming out of the U.S.A. must have passed said more stringent checks, and was thus OK (enough) to get into Canada; this, I think, is Canadian efficiency at its best: we use the Americans to do our border security checks.

Aloha,

Brad

[bradm]

quote:

---

Originally posted by arcane:

By my recollection, the guy didn't ask us our citizenship, just where we were from.

---

Yeah, that's what I meant...

Aloha,

Brad

[arcane]

It was kinda surreal.

[CyberHippie]

I've found lately border crossings to be remarkably easy!

It seems with the new war on terrorism everything has changed, and the focus at the border is now Foreign looking people.

"Oh your a young WASP coming in to enjoy some music and drugs? Come on in!!"

[Phred]

I find the cornwall crossing to be pretty easy in general. The have the casino right there in the U.S, and I guess they assume that most of the crossers are going to play craps.

When you said you weren't there long, perhaps he assumed you were gamblers coming back for winning 40$ and 8$ at blackjack.

[Schwa.]

living in chatham affords us here the luxury of seeing a lot of shows in Detroit. Hence i have become somewhat of a pro at the crossing. Everyone here has infact. ABSOLUTELY NO PARAFENALIA goes across. Only barebones what you need because you can always buy rollies when you get there or whatever else you need. A little tip for ya though, lots of safety pins and a very tight roll up job in the bag and then a layer or two of plastic wrap and then stick it inside the flap of your gitch right next to your junk. It sounds shitty but i have yet to have a problem. (knock on wood) I used to go to school in windsor at the U there and i have crossed more times tha\n i can count, and the one thing i would tell you for safe crossing is to be calm and tell the truth. the people there are trained to pick up twitches to tell them that you are lieing. So if they ask you if you whrer you are going just tell them straight that it is a show and be confident.

Hope that helps.

[as is]

if stuff is found in the car, it's the owner who gets busted, no matter who bag it was in. if only one person has stuff on his person, they let the rest of you go, after a search.

same thing happened to us last year at the maine/NB crossing. unknown to me and my friend, the two guys we were travelling with had been caught trying to bring a dirty bong from amsterdam into the US. (not the smartest plan) when we pulled up to the booth, they took one look at their passports, and told us to pull over and get out of the car. before even searching the car, they put us all in separate rooms, which is about when i started to have a panic attack. they searched the car, and us, and thankfully they found nothing. they sent us on our way after about 45 min of hell and panic.

but remember, never take anything! it's just not worth it. and if it's your car, it's your ass.

[Swifty]

on our way to pink floyd our buddy jumps out of the limo to take a piss off the ambassador bridge of all places. in no time flat our limo was surrounded by the border patrol with their guns drawn. we were forced out of the car and into customs. they thought our buddy was dropping a package off the bridge. these assholes did no body search on our crew and just made us go back and drop the shmuck back in windsor. my buddy with the pot under his hat was breathing a sigh of relief until they pulled us over on our way back again. tyhe bag of weed was like a hot potatoe thrown aroung from one person to another in a panick. when it got to me i just ate it dam thing . never cross the border with sean abe after he's had a few! never take a limo either, its just cheese.

[Guest]

I've had a few unpleasant border crossings but mostly its been smooth sailing. My anxiety builds up a little but if you follow a few easy rules of thumb then its usually ok.. For example: Music completely OFF, sunglasses OFF, phish shirt OFF, nice shirt ON, hair made to look semi groomed, phish/dead stickers not on the car (if possible), have ID ready, and have story ready (you're not going to see the String Cheese Incident concert, you are going to Darien Lake, etc).

One time at the Peace Bridge crossing, after a few questions he learned we were seeing Phish and said "hmm, do you have any marijuana on board?" We said "No".

"Do you have any hashish?"

"No"

"Any acid?"

"Nope"

"Any esctasy, heroin, crystal meth, cocaine, etc etc?"

"Nope"

"Ok, go ahead!"

He didn't list them exactly that way but he seriously went off on a huge list, it was hilarious. He was definitely kidding around with us. Right out of Sublime's "Scarlet Begonias" I tell ya.

[Booche]

So, there I am, just standing in front of about 8 Heads I didnt know and three I did.

Buddy is going through my wallet, in plain view of everyone, and within earshot, and he pulls out a condom.

"What eez dis? You avin't used one of dose since you were 6-teeen"

So, I make a face and we all laugh.

"Ok, now den, take of yer choose"

"Ok"

"And de socks too"

"Umm, oooooookkkkkk" all the while knowing what I had in there.

"What de hell? CHOO PAINT CHAIR TOENAILS?"

Yup, hardest laugh any of those heads ever had at a border crossing.............

[AD]

On our way to the Vermont Trey show we get to the border and wait a bit. We pull up and the guy at the window asks where we're going while the other guys checks the trunk. We say we're going to Essex Junction for a concert. He says, 'Oh yeah? Is Phish back together or something?" Turns to his partner and says, "Hey! Maybe Mule's in town!"

We're kinda dazed from this turn of events. I'm riding shotgun, and all of a sudden the trunk-searcher is at my window motioning for me to roll it down. I do and he asks what I have in the stereo. I say 'Trey Anastasio Band'. He tells me (with the authority of the American government behind him), 'Turn on track 11 (Last Tube) and crank it!'

We, being meek Canadian tourists, obey fully. They both give us big shit-eating grins and wave us through. By far the easiest and funnest border crossing there ever was or will be.

Alan

[CyberHippie]

That's pretty wicked dude!

[backbacon]

From my post here: KDTU 3/16/02 review

quote:

---

The border was bit of a fiasco. Be careful people. If you are bringing anything over, keep it ON YOU. After multiple no hassle trips over in the past few years, they decided to get my heart pumping pretty good. They must have really thought I looked guilty because, not only did they check my car very thoroughly, they even brought in this huge truck with an arm on the side to X-ray my car. Let me tell you, sitting in that customs office for 25 minutes looking out at your car get violated is no fun. The jackass who was the main inspector just came up to me after and gave me my keys. Didn't say a word or anything. I sat there for a brief moment wondering wtf was going on and finally decided, "well that must mean we can go" and we were on our way to the venue.

---

[arcane]

By my recollection, the guy didn't ask us our citizenship, just where we were from. Then again, I had been driving for the past few hours in a car with no A/C.

There was no line-up whatsoever at the Cornwall crossing. The guy could have strip-searched us without causing a delay.

If I'd driven on the clutch, we could have had the entire exchange without stopping the car.

[Schwa.]

KevO, similar thing happened to me at the same bridge. Coming home from DMB in buffalo, she asked me do you have any marijuana in the car? I quickly responded "no" and then she asked me "did you smoke it all?" and i just about said YUP! the pause was enough to make her glare at me but luckily she let me through. That also goes down as one of the worst drives home from a show ever for me.....but thats a different QotD all together.