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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64759
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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As you may have read in my May trip report, at Tecate, while stopped at the border kiosk, a dog was walked to my truck and went nuts jumping on the
side of it (scratches added at no charge)! It wasn't anything in my truck, but dogs in back of the truck in the next lane over that excited the
government K-9! I still got sent to secondary... as common sense and the long interview the greenhorn* officer didn't matter.
* perhaps the oddest questioning I ever got in 40 years of driving across the border...
U.S. Officer: "Where in Mexico were you?"
Me: "Just south of San Felipe."
U.S. Officer: "San Felipe? I don't know where that is, but is it where there are mostly gringos living, like at Mulege or Loreto?"
Me: "I think all those towns are mostly Mexicans with maybe small American populations... We don't go somewhere in Mexico because Americans are
there."
U.S. Officer, kept using "gringo" to describe people and it was odd and bordered on upsetting. Not that it matters but he was European-American with a
Southern accent.
I suppose it was still far better than being handcuffed 'for my safety'!!!
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mojo_norte
Senior Nomad
Posts: 725
Registered: 2-14-2006
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
As you may have read in my May trip report, at Tecate, while stopped at the border kiosk, a dog was walked to my truck and went nuts jumping on the
side of it (scratches added at no charge)! It wasn't anything in my truck, but dogs in back of the truck in the next lane over that excited the
government K-9! I still got sent to secondary... as common sense and the long interview the greenhorn* officer didn't matter.
* perhaps the oddest questioning I ever got in 40 years of driving across the border...
U.S. Officer: "Where in Mexico were you?"
Was it the young uber serious guy w/ wire rim glasses ? What gets me about many of the secondary guys is how clueless they seem to be on what you're
(and the Gringo thing is ) about - pulling in with a stack of boards and mountain bikes 'what were you doing in Mexico?'
duhh.. They ought to send these guys down to San Felipe for a week as part of their training
U.S. Officer: "San Felipe? I don't know where that is, but is it where there are mostly gringos living, like at Mulege or Loreto?"
Me: "I think all those towns are mostly Mexicans with maybe small American populations... We don't go somewhere in Mexico because Americans are
there."
U.S. Officer, kept using "gringo" to describe people and it was odd and bordered on upsetting. Not that it matters but he was European-American with a
Southern accent.
I suppose it was still far better than being handcuffed 'for my safety'!!! |
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mojo_norte
Senior Nomad
Posts: 725
Registered: 2-14-2006
Member Is Offline
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oops ..
Was it the young uber serious guy w/ wire rim glasses ? What gets me about many of the secondary guys is how clueless they seem to be on what you're
(and the Gringo thing is ) about - pulling in with a stack of boards and mountain bikes 'what were you doing in Mexico?'
duhh.. They ought to send these guys down to San Felipe for a week as part of their training
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DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 29510
Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Punta Banda
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by mojo_norte
'what were you doing in Mexico?'
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Actually, they couldn't care less what you did. They just want to hear you respond. If you sound nervous or distracted, they'll give you a closer
look.
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Correcamino
Junior Nomad
Posts: 78
Registered: 4-6-2013
Location: Sabre Springs, CA
Member Is Offline
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Had a bad encounter with Danny the drug dog (not his real name) myself! Border Patrol "Interior Checkpoint" on Interstate 8, 15 miles east of Yuma,
AZ. Rolled down window, "Hello, officer!," got waved into secondary. "Sir, can you exit the vehicle?" OK. "Sir, place the keys on the dashboard and
move over to the seating area." OK. Danny was brought over, dancing merrily, even though he was a Belgian Malinois and it was 112 degrees. "Sir,
our dog has indicated for narcotics in your vehicle." Narcotics?!?! "Yes sir, marijuana." Hmmm... "Will you allow the dog to search inside your
vehicle?" "Certainly, officer. Should I put away the food and drinks?" "Yes, sir". Danny leaped into the car and did a pirouette on each seat,
energetically nosing each inch of the interior, and broke into a stationary trot on the passenger seat. "Our dog has indicated again for marijuana in
the passenger seat, sir. Can we look around further?" Now I'm getting nervous: I had rented the 2012 Chevy Malibu that morning. It had smelled
like smoke - tobacco smoke, I thought at the time. Guess not! "What if the stoner previous renters left a baggie of dope in the car," my wife asked?
Suddenly, situation not funny. "Guess we'll need a lawyer," I said, NOT smiling. No pot was found. Danny danced back to the auto lineup with his
handler for another few hours of sniffing. The two officers who remained sized up my wife and me, mid 50s, white as Norman Rockwell models, middle
class, well mannered. "OK, sir, I see this is a Hertz rental. You should contact them." "OK, officer: keep up the good work, I appreciate your
service." Damn! Only problem: we had about 3,000 miles to go to get to Houston and back, almost all in the 100-mile border zone. We went through
12 to 15 Border Patrol stops including the one that busted Willie Nelson. Never again got "alerted to" by Danny's co-workers, but, God, were we
nervous every time!
[Edited on 7-12-2013 by Correcamino]
[Edited on 7-12-2013 by Correcamino]
Si sirve, sirve.
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64759
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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| Quote: | Originally posted by mojo_norte
oops ..
Was it the young uber serious guy w/ wire rim glasses ? What gets me about many of the secondary guys is how clueless they seem to be on what you're
(and the Gringo thing is ) about - pulling in with a stack of boards and mountain bikes 'what were you doing in Mexico?'
duhh.. They ought to send these guys down to San Felipe for a week as part of their training |
No, this was at the border not in secondary just past border. No glasses, either.
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Mulegena
Super Nomad
Posts: 2412
Registered: 11-7-2006
Member Is Offline
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Ok, since we're telling drug dog encounters and I'm still having coffee this morning-- hold on, let me get a refill please-- be right back-- There.
We were traveling north from a shopping trip to La Paz and the back of the pickup was stuffed full, safely enclosed in the camper shell. We'd packed
up, locked up the shell and climbed into the cab with our dog and a new baby kitten that Nomad C-Urchin had given us.
We got to the checkpoint north of Loreto, and as always were asked to get out for their routine inspection, so we all spilled out of the cab--
husband, dog, me with purse slung over my shoulder and kitten in my arms.
Well, husband couldn't unlock the camper shell for inspection so a dialogue ensued, the usual questions "Who are you? Where were you? Why? What's in
the back?" We became the center of attention; all the soldiers gathered around us. Someone produced a hammer out of thin air to which my husband
responded laughingly, "If you break it you pay for it!". That stopped the young soldier and the sergeant stepped up and said they would then bring the
drug dog out.
Ok, no worries.
We watched the proceedings closely, husband overseeing the proceedure. I got to watch this beautiful Belgian Malinois at work. It proved nothing. They
let us go and traffic returned to normal. All the while my dog sat at my side and, gratefully, the kitten stayed calm resting in my arms.
Husband easily opened the campershell the next day with a couple spritzes of WD40.
The kitten is now a big cat.
Another time. Another checkpoint. Another dog, a shepherd-lab mix.
Another unusual encounter with the Mexican military.
The guys on duty really liked her and wanted us to give her to them. No way!!
"Raise your words, not your voice. It's rain that grows flowers, not thunder." ~Rumi
"It's the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." ~ Aristotle
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Correcamino
Junior Nomad
Posts: 78
Registered: 4-6-2013
Location: Sabre Springs, CA
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Mulegena
I got to watch this beautiful Belgian Malinois at work. |
Exactly! As I rolled into the BP checkpoint east of Yuma, I said to my wife, "look at at that beautiful dog!" (Belgian Malinois). It looked so out
of place in the nasty AZ desert heat with all those wannabe S.W.A.T. BP agents.
Si sirve, sirve.
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Bajafun777
Super Nomad
Posts: 1103
Registered: 9-13-2006
Location: Rosarito & California
Member Is Offline
Mood: Enjoying Life with Wife In Mexico, Easy on The Easy
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Looks and age have nothing to do with not being a threat. At the Mexicali/Calexico Port some years back a 72 year old man sent to Secondary got out
of his car wanting to use the bathroom or some other excuse and was lead into the secondary office where he pulled a gun and started shooting. He hit
two officers before one returned fire and threat terminated. You just never know anymore what people from all walks of life will or will not do.
Hope all of our travels are easy and border crossings quick but I don't take things personal when crossing, business is business and mine is FUN so I
accept what is, LOL. "No Hurry, No Worry, Just FUN" bajafun777
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EngineerMike
Nomad
Posts: 272
Registered: 9-6-2006
Member Is Offline
Mood: piso mojado
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I hope I have that kind of energy when I'm 72 ;-)
Drug & bomb dogs require regular recalibration. For them its a game, like fetch. If you don't let them win from time to time (which requires
actual search of luggage or autos w/actual drugs or bomb materials in one of them), they get bored & their results are unreliable.
I never thought of that FDS trick. I wonder if that would throw off the dogs that want to sniff my crotch? Or maybe I'd just get smelled up by the
gay dogs. Too many variables I guess.
[Edited on 7-21-2013 by EngineerMike]
Director, Mulege Student Scholarship Program
Oasis Rio Baja #M-3, & Auburn, CA
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Cisco
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4196
Registered: 12-30-2010
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Correcamino
| Quote: | Originally posted by Mulegena
I got to watch this beautiful Belgian Malinois at work. |
Exactly! As I rolled into the BP checkpoint east of Yuma, I said to my wife, "look at at that beautiful dog!" (Belgian Malinois). It looked so out
of place in the nasty AZ desert heat with all those wannabe S.W.A.T. BP agents. |
"To Yuma County, the Border Patrol's dogs look more like geese — as in the ones laying golden eggs.
They've brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past few years. Until a change was made last fall, fines ranged between $750 and $1,400 for
the small-time marijuana violators picked up at the checkpoints. Now, fines usually run $400 — but that still works out to be a lot of money
considering there have been more than a thousand cases a year."
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2008-03-13/news/border-patrol...
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monoloco
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6667
Registered: 7-13-2009
Location: Pescadero BCS
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Cisco
| Quote: | Originally posted by Correcamino
| Quote: | Originally posted by Mulegena
I got to watch this beautiful Belgian Malinois at work. |
Exactly! As I rolled into the BP checkpoint east of Yuma, I said to my wife, "look at at that beautiful dog!" (Belgian Malinois). It looked so out
of place in the nasty AZ desert heat with all those wannabe S.W.A.T. BP agents. |
"To Yuma County, the Border Patrol's dogs look more like geese — as in the ones laying golden eggs.
They've brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past few years. Until a change was made last fall, fines ranged between $750 and $1,400 for
the small-time marijuana violators picked up at the checkpoints. Now, fines usually run $400 — but that still works out to be a lot of money
considering there have been more than a thousand cases a year."
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2008-03-13/news/border-patrol... |
They could increase their take if they
set up a dispensary across the border in California to sell the stuff they confiscate in Az.
"The future ain't what it used to be"
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