About midhight last night I breezed through the Peace Arch border crossing heading into the US -- not a car in the queue. The Border Patrol agent asks me the usual questions -- where do you live, where are you coming from, what did you do there? I tell him Seattle, Vancouver, & went to a concert.
He says what was the concert, so I tell him the Vancouver Symphony. Then he says "do you have a ticket stub?"
WTF?!! I must have crossed this border 50 times or more, and no guard had gone into such a ridiculous level of detail.
I can't find the stub right away, so I give him a symphony program booklet, and he says "is this the concert that you went to?" (DUHH!). I have to tell him that there are several concerts included in the little book, and that mine was one of them. Then I finally find the ticket stub and show him that. He looks it over like a chimp trying to read.
Finally, I say "isn't all this a little little unusual?" He says "I have to verify what you said."
He also asked the usual "what did you buy there question", and I told him.
He was a young Asian-American guy. As we finish up, I ask if he's Japanese-American. He asks why I want to know, in not a very friendly tone of voice. I reply that the concert conductor was Japanese, which you don't see very often, and he did a great job.
I chalk up most of this to inexperience and maybe some cockiness -- the older guys tend to size you up quickly, use their intuition, and wave you through.
Is this unusual -- has anyone here been put through that kind of crap at the border?
He says what was the concert, so I tell him the Vancouver Symphony. Then he says "do you have a ticket stub?"
WTF?!! I must have crossed this border 50 times or more, and no guard had gone into such a ridiculous level of detail.
I can't find the stub right away, so I give him a symphony program booklet, and he says "is this the concert that you went to?" (DUHH!). I have to tell him that there are several concerts included in the little book, and that mine was one of them. Then I finally find the ticket stub and show him that. He looks it over like a chimp trying to read.
Finally, I say "isn't all this a little little unusual?" He says "I have to verify what you said."
He also asked the usual "what did you buy there question", and I told him.
He was a young Asian-American guy. As we finish up, I ask if he's Japanese-American. He asks why I want to know, in not a very friendly tone of voice. I reply that the concert conductor was Japanese, which you don't see very often, and he did a great job.
I chalk up most of this to inexperience and maybe some cockiness -- the older guys tend to size you up quickly, use their intuition, and wave you through.
Is this unusual -- has anyone here been put through that kind of crap at the border?
