Brits visiting Canada detained after accidentally driving into USA

[Wakey]

If you look hard enough, you might even spot them on here-

 

[kaytieeldr]

Another unrelated anecdote - I traveled to Canada last week and had a very pleasant experience with both Canadian and American officials.

My anecdote: Ex and I, his son and daughter in law, and a few of their friends drove from Watertown to Toronto one weekend. Four twenty-somethings in one car, us and one of the friends in our car. We got through Customs with no problem, but had to pull over and wait for the four "youngsters" to be questioned and their car to be searched.

No problems on the way back.

1. We accidentally drove into Germany.

.
Shades of National Lampoon's European Vacation! And Stripes!

All the European ones have been much better (and faster!) experiences where you don't feel like you're being interrogated.

I wonder if that has anything to do with the United States being a highly desirable destination?

 

[Pea-n-Me]

My first thought when I saw this is that "they doth protest too much".

 

[bcla]

No, you misunderstand. Or maybe I wasn't clear. I said US Customs gave me a hard time. Canadian customs cheerfully welcomed me to Manitoba.

I’ve been asked some really weird questions by US Customs. CBSA officers were asking standard questions like where we were from, where we planned to stay and if we were visiting friends. The oddest question was if I was driving my own car. It was a rental from SeaTac with Oregon plates and I noted that.

Back in 1986 we were visiting BC for Expo 86 and went to Vancouver Island first via Black Ball Ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria. And we weren’t greeted by a (then) Canada Customs officer but an RCMP officer in full Red Serge uniform who looked like he came out of a tourism commercial.

 

[cheryl.UK]

The biggest hassle I've ever had was coming back into the UK from France.

Official: Why did you visit France?
Me: We were on holiday, camping in the Dordogne
Official: Why is your car so full?
Me : We were camping
Official: Why do you have all that bedding?
Me: Because there are 4 of us and we were camping
Official: Why do you have all those chairs?

Can you guess how the rest of the conversation went? Half an hour of questions along the same lines just to get back into my own country.

Last question was the best... Q - Why does your daughter have purple hair? A- Because she's odd.

 

[kaytieeldr]

@cheryl.UK - let me ask you. Have you ever been camping in France?

 

[DL55]

Ohh are we sharing anecdotes? Sounds fun. I once crossed backand forth between the US and Canada repeatedly during the day,on water even without ever once going through customs.

View attachment 444787

There is this incredible area in Northern Minnesota called the Boundary Waters. Get it Boundary? lol we honeymooned there and canoed all around and would paddle back and forth across the border constantly. It was delightful. It was also 20 years ago - but hey, an anecdote is an anedcote. AND we even think we maybe saw a moose, or it could have been a bear - not really sure cuz we paddled as fast as we could in the opposite direction - which may or may not have been into Canada - it was simply the "away from the moose" direction.

I think this may be a valid "I swerved to avoid an animal and ended up in another country".

 

[kaytieeldr]

T-shirts for everyone!

 

[Deb & Bill]

My crossing the border story. We were taking our son up to Missoula, MT in his car to go to school from NW Louisiana. We decided to do a little vacationing while we were up there and headed to Glacier National Park. Because we were so close to Peace Park, we had decided to head up there as well (we had passports with us). We got to the border crossing into Canada in our packed car with Louisiana license plates.. I was driving. We gave the guard our passports and driver's licenses. She asked us the typical questions, where were we going, for how long, why was our car so filled up. All those went well. Then she asked us if we had any guns with us. We told her we didn't. She asked if we were sure because she thought everyone from Louisiana carried a gun.

 

[Imzadi]

I mean a semi-unvaccinated 3 month old living in frigid filth for a week is now medically fine? (Has it even been actually frigid in Pennsylvania -temps look above freezing to me)
Something doesn't add up

I'm surprised you and I are the only ones to pick up that the weather was no where NEAR frigid in PA. I Googled and that part of PA is the same latitude as me here in NYC, and it's only a few hundred miles away. They certainly didn't have some cold snap or snow storm that we didn't have. I had my window fan on every night up till a few days ago, when it finally went down to 58. Still, I didn't pull out any heavy blankets.

And these people are from the U.K, and were in CA, both a higher latitude and where both are traditionally colder and wetter than PA, and she's complaining that the detention center was frigid? Give me a break.

 

[Princessclab]

The vast majority of the articles in the Post are factual hard news stories. Yes they hire opinion writers. To claim the Post is tabloid journalism is not accurate

Nope, have not read anything that would be called credible 'journalism'.
Perception is reality.....and yes accuracy is an issue with the paper, not my opinion.

 

[Princessclab]

Someone's drank the kool-aid.

Hope you enjoyed it! lol

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Thanks border patrol for doing your job.

 

[MillauFr]

Nope, have not read anything that would be called credible 'journalism'.
Perception is reality.....and yes accuracy is an issue with the paper, not my opinion.

Perception is often wrong when it is not supported by hard facts. There is no such thing as alternative facts.

 

[sam_gordon]

I seem to remember the first several posts here (and on other sites) were full of outrage. Then the facts began to emerge. Journalism is a pale shadow of what it used to be. Fact checking is a nearly forgotten skill. True investigative reporters are a dying breed. Story after story is debunked soon after the heartstrings of readers have been pulled to get the story out first. The truth seems to matter not much at all.

Stories break and some people’s internal hiney-meter goes off, because some of the details just sound off. We then ask why the journalists didn’t pick up on these fishy aspects, but all too often, they ignore what is right in front of their face. So no, I do not have confidence in them, the way I once did.

I grew up admiring journalists for their sleuthing skills and desire to get the truth out there. It is very difficult to do that today. Their goal seems to have changed too much.

I think it's a "chicken vs egg" thing. They're trying to give viewers/readers what they want. People will watch/read the "sleeze" instead of hard hitting journalism. So, in order to attract those customers, news organizations (which are businesses don't forget) have gone to the lowest common denominator.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

If you look hard enough, you might even spot them on here-

Smuggling rare endangered caterpillars into the US by gluing them to their foreheads didn't help their case either.

 

[Heidict]

Back in 1986 my 18 year sister was seperated from her group and held alone for a few hours trying to cross from East Berlin, back into West Berlin. She was scared to death and didn't know what to do. Thankfully, they finally let her through.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

I did misunderstand - what a relief! I was disappointed with us there for a minute. Maybe if you'd gone further east and tried to re-enter into Minnesota, I hear those folks are real friendly too!

OK. I remember a time Canadian customs was somewhat less than friendly.

Ottawa airport, October 1995. They seemed skeptical of my stated reason for visiting and pulled me aside for a second interview. Someone would actually want to visit Ottawa as a tourist?????

This was about a week before Quebec separation referendum and maybe they thought I was an imported trouble maker. The second interviewer asked questions about my job, how long I had worked there, my previous addresses, etc. They finally seemed satisfied that I was just an eccentric, not a rabble rouser.

On the way back home I was surprised that the Ottawa airport did NOT have US pre-clearance. Maybe they do now.

 

[pezgirlroy]

No the Washington Post is not a reliable source; very tabloid journalism.

You have to be kidding me. The Washington post is absolutely a reliable source.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Ottawa airport, October 1995. They seemed skeptical of my stated reason for visiting and pulled me aside for a second interview. Someone would actually want to visit Ottawa as a tourist?????

Interesting. My trip was in 94 or 95, and they accepted, "going to a bar in Toronto".

You have to be kidding me. The Washington post is absolutely a reliable source.

Yep. Ethical and accurate, too.