bajajurel
Nomad
Posts: 276
Registered: 6-17-2009
Location: San Diego
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Mood: Fishing for fun
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Sentri Pass - Otay Mesa
Crossed the border at Otay and both of us have our Sentri Pass. Officer was old and cranky as hell and said we had too much stuff to be using the
Sentri lane. I ask what constitutes "too much stuff"? We had 2 coolers, box of food, fishing gear, poles, bags, etc. inside the SUV with the back
seats folded down.
Of course I can't keep my mouth shut complaining about how much I paid, back ground checks, we are trusted traveler's etc., so we ended up in
secondary with a note on our windshield.
 I know the note said "send 'em around the x-ray 3 times, then screw with
them as much as you want. The guy in secondary gave us the same line - boy you got a lot of stuff and Sentri is not for you guys. I told him there
is nothing written that says I can't do this and during my interview I told them why I was getting the pass. 
Anyway the wait in the line + secondary was 1 hour. Still better than the 3 - 4 hour wait.
You can bet we'll be back.
bajajurel
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DanO
Super Nomad
Posts: 1923
Registered: 8-26-2003
Location: Not far from the Pacific
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Wow. I've come back through San Ysidro Sentri dozens of times with the truck loaded to the gills -- motorcycles, luggage, coolers, you name it -- and
I've never gotten that kind of response. Was any of the food on the "banned" list?
\"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.\" -- Frank Zappa
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fandango
Senior Nomad
Posts: 549
Registered: 1-30-2006
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I have experienced that exact thing a couple times. Agent said sentri was for commuters and I could be in violation if they can't see the bottom of
the truck bed.
sbwontoo
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bajajurel
Nomad
Posts: 276
Registered: 6-17-2009
Location: San Diego
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Mood: Fishing for fun
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| Quote: | Originally posted by DanO
Wow. I've come back through San Ysidro Sentri dozens of times with the truck loaded to the gills -- motorcycles, luggage, coolers, you name it -- and
I've never gotten that kind of response. Was any of the food on the "banned" list? |
No banned items - only normal gear and fish fillets.
bajajurel
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movinguy
Nomad
Posts: 257
Registered: 3-19-2004
Location: Chula Vista, CA and Tijuana, MX
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I cross at Otay every day and I know the guy you are talking about.
I have concluded that Otay SENTRI is for trainees and dead weight they can't put anywhere else. San Ysidro, on the other hand, has been very
efficient since they went to the double booths.
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CortezBlue
Super Nomad
Posts: 2213
Registered: 11-14-2006
Location: Fenix/San Phelipe
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| Quote: | Originally posted by bajajurel
Crossed the border at Otay and both of us have our Sentri Pass. Officer was old and cranky as hell and said we had too much stuff to be using the
Sentri lane. I ask what constitutes "too much stuff"? We had 2 coolers, box of food, fishing gear, poles, bags, etc. inside the SUV with the back
seats folded down.
Of course I can't keep my mouth shut complaining about how much I paid, back ground checks, we are trusted traveler's etc., so we ended up in
secondary with a note on our windshield.
I know the note said "send 'em around the x-ray 3 times, then screw with
them as much as you want. The guy in secondary gave us the same line - boy you got a lot of stuff and Sentri is not for you guys. I told him there
is nothing written that says I can't do this and during my interview I told them why I was getting the pass.
Anyway the wait in the line + secondary was 1 hour. Still better than the 3 - 4 hour wait.
You can bet we'll be back. |
This summer we took a trip from San Felipe over the hill to Ensenada and then up through TJ to San Diego.
We also have SENTRI, but the day we decided to cross, the first time, I might add, the bus drivers were on strike and they closed the SENTRI entry.
We had to go back and enter into the normal lane and then cut into the SENTRI down the way.
It took us an hour to get to the crossing booth and the agent told me I was in luck and was getting secondary today.
Now, I am crapping my knappys. We loaded up on Tequila to take to some friends in the states. We had about 8 bottles between the 2 of us.
The first thing they did was send us through Xray. This was also a first for me.
Then we parked and waited and waited and waited. About one more hour. Finally a you kid comes out to examine our vehicle. He opened our cooler and
saw 2 bottles of tequila and said nothing. He didn't ask how many bottles or anything.
He then started tapping and banging on my truck and checking underneath with a mirror. I asked him if he had any concerns about working around Xray.
He responded that 90% of the time the xray doesn't work.
It took him all of 5 minutes to give us the once over and we were on our way.
Skated by, this time
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bajaguy
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9247
Registered: 9-16-2003
Location: Carson City, NV/Ensenada - Baja Country Club
Member Is Offline
Mood: must be 5 O'clock somewhere in Baja
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The same guy???
We were in the ready lane before obtaining the SENTRI sticker for our new truck. Truck had 6 weeks of Baja stuff, dirty clothes, 2 yellow labs in the
way-back and a cat in front with us.......pulled up to the booth, the old guy looks in and says....."you have too much stuff".............writes us up
and off we go to secondary.
One CBP guy comes over and looks at the detention slip, calls another guy over.....they both study the slip for a couple of munites then approach the
drivers door.......I'm thinking good cop, bad cop routine. One guy asks me why we were sent to secondary......I tell him "too much stuff"......he
shows me the detention slip. The slip says we are coming from Ensenada headed to Ensenada. Both guys look in the back seat, then the way back with the
dogs........first guy comes back to me and asks.....'are they friendly"........both CBP guys start petting the dogs......
Then another CBP guy comes over and sees the cat........starts scratching the cat's ears........
No questions about what we have, anything about the animals or any vehicle searches. The cat scratching guy stays with us, the other two walk to the
computer to clear us. cat scratch guys says....have a nice trip and sends us on our way.......
Is this the same "too much stuff" guy??????
Just looked at the paperwork we got with our SENTRI renewal, no mention of "too much stuff"......Wonder if there are new "too much stuff" SENTRI
rules???
[Edited on 10-4-2012 by bajaguy]
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marv sherrill
Nomad
Posts: 462
Registered: 11-18-2003
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Cortez blue - you certainly should not to try to take advantaqe of the sentri lane. That causes a back lash on all of us - shame on you!!!! If you
want to smuggle something acrossthe border, take your chances in the regular border crossing - I don't want to spend additional time in secondary
because of your stupidity. You should know better...
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56MM#
Junior Nomad
Posts: 59
Registered: 2-3-2010
Member Is Offline
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As a SENTRI Card holder who has crossed numerous times without incident and as someone who has held a top secret clearance while on active duty, I
would remind the CBP agent that having a SENTRI Card is about the person and the fact that they are trustworthy, not about how much stuff someone is
bringing back. These folks need to focus on the person. If one has taken the time to obtain a SENTRI Card and bared their life to DHS, then they are
more trustworthy than the average crosser.
For decades we have endured ridiculously long waits because the least common denominators out there are trying to smuggle things into the U.S. The
SENTRI Program is, IMHO, long overdue.
We have way too much to lose by doing something stupid. Please, DHS, recognize us for who we are: law-abiding citizens.
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