BajaNomad

X-ray scanned my car at MX SY crossing

bajalearner - 4-29-2014 at 08:21 AM

Yesterday, I crossed s/b at SY about noon, while alone in my big SUV. I was stopped, and politely directed to drive to the x-ray machine which took about 30 minutes to complete. I had to exit my car during the scan. It appeared they entered my name in their system which took half the waiting time. Nothing came of it but it was a first for me going s/b.

I cross several times a week and I have not seen other cars in the x-ray station.

Just for info.

Pompano - 4-29-2014 at 08:30 AM

This is let you know you're not alone, bajalearner, my rigs have been X-rayed, too. It's happened to me twice. First time with my large motorhome and the second with a fifth wheel RV. My name has been in the system a long time, so the procedure was rather quick.

Ateo - 4-29-2014 at 08:31 AM

Thanks. Was checking that thing out last weekend and wondering if anyone ever gets sent thru. Now I know it's not just a prop but is actually real.

willardguy - 4-29-2014 at 08:50 AM

what would they hope to find in an SUV? I can understand looking for people in a large vehicle! (this is a banana truck smuggling some folks)


Udo - 4-29-2014 at 09:11 AM

Smuggling someone INTO Mexico???

ehall - 4-29-2014 at 09:17 AM

guns or ammo?

willardguy - 4-29-2014 at 09:21 AM

or that extra bottle of tequila?

Otay

bajaguy - 4-29-2014 at 09:23 AM

Had that done at Otay, SB

nandopedal - 4-29-2014 at 09:29 AM

ehall, not only that but also large concealed bundles of cash money, a lot of it gets exchange right there in San Ysidro

bajalearner - 4-29-2014 at 09:31 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Ateo
Thanks. Was checking that thing out last weekend and wondering if anyone ever gets sent thru. Now I know it's not just a prop but is actually real.


And what makes you sure about that??? Although, the agent did tell me I lost a filling.

DavidE - 4-29-2014 at 10:12 AM

Got an old roll of unexposed camera film laying around? Let it go through X ray, peel it off the roll and if it's still black you got a dud.

dasubergeek - 4-29-2014 at 10:24 AM

They were stopping everyone southbound on Sunday at SY and asking questions. I had a nice 5-minute discussion that involved being asked several times where I was from. ("Orange County, right?" "Yes, Anaheim." "So Anaheim's in Orange County?") and being asked where I was going and whether I had more than $10,000 cash in my truck. ("No. I've got about $80 and 200 pesos in my wallet.")

You could tell he was waffling on whether to send me off for secondary screening. It was definitely a first for me headed southbound.

Northbound the same day it took nearly 40 minutes through SENTRI at SY, too. Blah!

sancho - 4-29-2014 at 10:35 AM

Walking over a few yrs. back, to bus to La Paz, the
SDPD was just before the ped walkin to TJ, x rayed
my bag, saw a suspicious object, with great care I
pulled out a banana I had for the bus trip

baconjr - 4-29-2014 at 06:50 PM

My wife had her car x rayed at Otay and she has a sentri pass.

CortezBlue - 4-29-2014 at 07:31 PM

We have SENTRI and crossed at TJ and were pulled over for secondary. We had 8 bottles of Tequila and luckily we hid them all over the cab of my truck. When they looked at our stuff I know they saw at least 4 bottles, but never said anything. When we went to secondary they told me that they had to run it through an xray.

After running the car through the xray, it took them nearly 45 minutes to finally send someone over to examine the car. It was a rather young kid and he told me that most of the time the xray machine does not work, but they still run cars through the system just to get a read from drivers.

tjsue - 4-29-2014 at 07:45 PM

I went to secondary for three months, and they never found anything. It got to the point, that when they ran my card, the just let me go. One agent got really mad at whoever put my name in the system, and said that their time was being wasted.

Ateo - 4-29-2014 at 07:49 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by CortezBlue
We have SENTRI and crossed at TJ and were pulled over for secondary. We had 8 bottles of Tequila and luckily we hid them all over the cab of my truck. When they looked at our stuff I know they saw at least 4 bottles, but never said anything. When we went to secondary they told me that they had to run it through an xray.


Why bring 8 bottles thru while having SENTRI? Not worth losing it. Especially after the government reads this.


:lol::lol:

cocoscabana - 4-29-2014 at 08:59 PM

When we were crossing the border between Canada and the US at Sumas/Huntingdon in BC, the border agent started asking questions regarding our medical history. Had we been to the doctor recently? Were we taking any medications? Had we had any radiation treatment? He then told us that a sensor had alerted him to something, and that we should go to secondary.

At secondary, they used a geiger counter on us, up and down our arms and legs, back and front. They then asked for the truck keys and did a search of the RV. We then saw the truck disappearing around the building , and our first thought was that the border agents had confiscated it!!! Soon they brought it back, and we saw the guard go digging in one of the side compartments. He came back into the building with a plastic bag, and asked my esposo why he had an altimeter in the truck. Now...my esposo used to own an airplane, and he had forgotten to remove it from the truck. As it turns out, luckily he had an "Old Pilots do it in the sky" t shirt on!!! so he could explain why! The altimeter had fluorescent numbers on it so that it would glow in the dark, and they were emitting a low amount of radiation! The border guard wrote up a report which we had to sign, and let us continue our journey!!!!

bajalearner - 4-29-2014 at 09:08 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Ateo
Quote:
Originally posted by CortezBlue
We have SENTRI and crossed at TJ and were pulled over for secondary. We had 8 bottles of Tequila and luckily we hid them all over the cab of my truck. When they looked at our stuff I know they saw at least 4 bottles, but never said anything. When we went to secondary they told me that they had to run it through an xray.


Why bring 8 bottles thru while having SENTRI? Not worth losing it. Especially after the government reads this.


:lol::lol:


Yeah, be careful. Don't loose SENTRI. Do Like me and drink 6 bottles and throw the empties out the window. : (

Bob53 - 4-30-2014 at 09:43 AM

My last trip down in March, they scanned my RV. That was the first time for me.

DavidE - 4-30-2014 at 10:29 AM

Hope they stop me...

¿A donde va?

México

¿Donde?

"A la casa es de Osario Chong"

CortezBlue - 4-30-2014 at 11:30 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Ateo
Quote:
Originally posted by CortezBlue
We have SENTRI and crossed at TJ and were pulled over for secondary. We had 8 bottles of Tequila and luckily we hid them all over the cab of my truck. When they looked at our stuff I know they saw at least 4 bottles, but never said anything. When we went to secondary they told me that they had to run it through an xray.


Why bring 8 bottles thru while having SENTRI? Not worth losing it. Especially after the government reads this.


:lol::lol:


Honestly, it was a mis-communications with my wife

She thought I had pulled out some of the tequila and left them at our casa in San Felipe and I thought she had left them

But, funny you should bring this up. When we went through SENTRI in Calexico a few weeks ago, I asked the border patrol dude if I have more bottles than allowed, how do I deal with that?
I continued and asked him if I would just pay taxes and he pretty much said, "depending on who you get for an agent?" He went on to say, "he normally just let them go!"

willardguy - 4-30-2014 at 11:43 AM

so if they did tax you, where would you be directed? secondary collects taxes??

motoged - 4-30-2014 at 12:04 PM

I tend to enjoy border crossings....I also like to watch Cops and Border Security on TV to get ideas as to how LEO's operate....so I am not surprised with their methods.

Recently, my Canada /US crossings (BC/Washington) have been different in that they have been asking more questions about when and where I have crossed....and as I know they have that info before they ask me, it is interesting to watch them try to formulate their questions....

It's a game that is fun .... :cool: :biggrin:

[Edited on 4-30-2014 by motoged]

willardguy - 4-30-2014 at 12:14 PM

cococabana's story about detecting radiation at the canadian border trips me out. Do we have these sensors at the mexican border crossings????

Bob53 - 4-30-2014 at 12:28 PM

So does the x-ray machine cause health problems for all of the people that are caught attempting to be smuggled across the border?

woody with a view - 4-30-2014 at 12:52 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by willardguy
cococabana's story about detecting radiation at the canadian border trips me out. Do we have these sensors at the mexican border crossings????


yes! but don't tell.....

dasubergeek - 4-30-2014 at 02:03 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by motoged
I tend to enjoy border crossings....I also like to watch Cops and Border Security on TV to get ideas as to how LEO's operate....so I am not surprised with there methods.

Recently, my Canada /US crossings (BC/Washington) have been different in that they have been asking more questions about when and where I have crossed....and as I know they have that info before they ask me, it is interesting to watch them try to formulate their questions....

It's a game that is fun .... :cool: :biggrin:


The agent who cleared me at SY northbound on Sunday asked me the same thing—"when's the last time you crossed?"

willardguy - 4-30-2014 at 04:22 PM

here's a story about x-ray scanners being used at san ysidro. its a couple years old.

http://www.cnet.com/news/dhs-x-ray-scanners-could-be-cancer-...

vgabndo - 4-30-2014 at 04:29 PM

A number of years ago at Tecate, I carelessly described my heavy duty utility trailer as "bombproof". WRONG...secondary. Where we parked in a row of vehicles and the Xray machine on the truck with the snorkel drove by and shot through all the stuff. Before they did it they made sure everyone knew to get anything alive out of your vehicles!!! An easy way to get smugglers to give up a human, even if the Xray was harmless! Huh, Ged?

David K - 4-30-2014 at 11:43 PM

Southbound or northbound... seems we are getting the directions confused? Since when is Sentri involved with going southbound? The thread was started about southbound x-ray (Mexican customs)... Thanks!

J.P. - 5-1-2014 at 08:38 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by David K
Southbound or northbound... seems we are getting the directions confused? Since when is Sentri involved with going southbound? The thread was started about southbound x-ray (Mexican customs)... Thanks!






I have seen the Americans set up on the southbound side just before you enter Mexican customs with their mobile X Ray truck at both San Yisddo and Tecate harassing the south bound traffic

Otay

bajaguy - 5-1-2014 at 09:04 PM

Southbound at Otay, just before you get to the Mexican side there is a very large parking lot to your right. CBP directed us to pull in along with about 20 other cars......looked random.

Had to get out of our vehicle, then the scanner truck went up one side of the vehicle line and down the other. As all of us were standing around waiting, CBP ran a K-9 past everybody. Couldn't determine if it was a bomb dog or a drug dog.

Took about 15 minutes....we were not harassed by CBP, in fact, they were very polite

tjsue - 5-1-2014 at 10:25 PM

More than likely it was a drug dog. I used to work at the Port of San Diego/Cruise Ship Terminal, and they brought in a bomb dog to check out all the luggage before it was put on the ship.