Anyone been stopped at Customs?

I was stopped when I picked up my luggage while stopping over at New York (Newark Liberty), it was quite nervewracking actually, as they're obviously just standard police with guns. I was tired, and I hadn't slept for just over a day. He asked me all these questions, and looked at me as if I was a freak (more so than usual ;)) - my clothes were slightly damp, due to misjudging the time it would take to get my clothes dry/pack, and he looked at my PSP and Nintendo DS as if I was some kind of strange flying child.

I guess it's their job to make you feel on the spot eh? Pressure and all that.
 
Balddog said:
Random searches dont you know :o
Click to expand...

Random my *** theres nothing random about when i get searched...maybe its because by the time i get out to customs im in a stinking foul mood....i absolutely loathe Terminal 4 at Heathrow...they make you walk such a long way when you disembark, especially if they park the plan at the extreme corner of the terminal lol...plus i always manage to catch red-eye flights on the way back to the UK...so at 6am in the morning im hardly the cheeriest of people.

Crizzy said:
Charming.:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Yes:rolleyes:
 
Spawn said:
Random my *** theres nothing random about when i get searched...maybe its because by the time i get out to customs im in a stinking foul mood....i absolutely loathe Terminal 4 at Heathrow...they make you walk such a long way when you disembark, especially if they park the plan at the extreme corner of the terminal lol...plus i always manage to catch red-eye flights on the way back to the UK...so at 6am in the morning im hardly the cheeriest of people.



Yes:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

it was sarcasm mate :o

its amazing how its always black/brown people who are stood at the metal tables at heathrow customs, emptying their bags :o well its amazing that they still insist its random :o

heathrow is just a horrible horrible airport...it really is dire..and the walk really is far too long :o but these days id rather die than fly BA so i dont go to terminal 4 much..im always coming in to terminal 3 and that feels like im walking for days before hitting security.
 
blade007 said:
Anyway, they proceeded to get some fabric on a pair of tongues, swish it about my shirt and in my rucsac, and also my shoes. The girl then prodded the fabric into the machine - and then after 10 seconds she proclaimed that there was a green light and I could go. I asked them what it was about and, as I suspected, the machine was a Mass Spectrometer and they're checking for explosives. No ones is going to evade one of them, they're better than dogs.
Click to expand...

Had that every time I went in to Beijing airport last year - everyone had their bags swabbed on the way in to the terminal building. Frustrating for meeting people, had some hefty queues once or twice, though they seem now to only do it at the security checkpoint - and even then it's just spot checks.

China's actually about the only place where I don't feel singled out for how I look - I used to get stopped and searched almost every time I passed through airport security. Being a long haired scruffy person probably didn't help, but here I'm a white person, and generally assumed to be ok. Though, I did get my bags taken aside and scanned on the way IN to the country, to check for pirated DVDs. This struck me as probably the most bizarre exercise I've seen take place in a long while, but I was too amused to argue with it.

Never had a problem with customs flying back in to the UK, though I've had a few moments with general passport control etc elsewhere. I was taken aside by some unnecessarily heavily armed people when flying out of Vietnam to ask why they didn't have records of where I was staying on certain nights (I didn't feel "because your bureaucratic system of ferrying bits of paper about probably failed somewhere" was the correct answer), and spent literally hours staring at a border guard in Morocco while he thumbed through my passport, put it down, and just ignored me and anything I said, until he got bored...

Agreed on the miserable sods part :p
 
i told security at heathrow that they did the worst rub down search ever, didnt get any hassle he just and who are you to judge, I said im a prison officer we do it all the time and I could have anything on me and you wouldnt of found it, he shrugged his shoulders and waved me on lol
 
Me and my parents were stopped a couple of years ago coming back from Prague. My mum was over on the cigarettes (dirty smoker) and they let it pass, it was obvious that they were just for her.

Overall it wasn't really a bad experience, just a few yes/no questions.

There was a guy next to us with a suitcase of fags who was, sufficed to say, as white as a sheet :p
 
Twice.
Once on the way back from one of my trips to the Dam, No surprise there then :p
3 days in the same clothes taking anything & everything (In a country where it's LEGAL) kind of makes you look a bit Moody :D

2nd time was eons ago when i used to smuggle baccy back from Belgium. I had Baccy everywhere all in my bag, stuck on me the lot :p They Ripped it all off me laughing & gave me the option of paying the tax on it or binning it. I binned it & went & sat on the station platform nursing my Red body :p:p:p

O Yer & they stopped me going to America, My sort are not Welcomed apparently :o + :D + :rolleyes: + :mad: = :p
 
I Got taken aside into a small room by a German security officer on the way back from Bremen, he swabed my DSLR and the lens, then wrote some gumph on his sheet and away I went.

Coming back through Stansted one night I was nosing in the Customs non EU Green aisle and there were two security guards around a bloke who had one of the largest suitcases I have ever seen. They were unpacking it, and it was full of hundreds of small gifts each wrapped with a bow, and in them were 10-20 boxes of cigarettes. I think he was screwed.
 
malc30 said:
O Yer & they stopped me going to America, My sort are not Welcomed apparently :o + :D + :rolleyes: + :mad: = :p
Click to expand...

Muslim !!


I have to go through Airports quite often with work and so have to go in and out of the metal detector a fair few times in a day, I normally discuss the benefits of MP5's and such :D
 
Came back from Morocco recently with a mate, got pulled aside in Bristol airport. Police questioned me on what I was doing there, whether I went to any mosques there and which ones I go to in Bristol. Asked me how I handle racism and whether I know any people who might be terrorists. Then they asked for all my details and my number so they can contact me in the future(nothing yet). After the police let me go, thought it was all over then another guy dragged us to side and searched our bags. Not the kind of welcome I was expecting, especially as I had problems in Morocco:rolleyes:

Felt more welcome in the USA when I went in 2005

edit: Moroccan security sucks though, I went onto the plane without emptying my pockets even though the metal detector went off. No frisk either
 
Last edited:
Went on the cliche filled end of school trip to Magaluf with my friends when i was around 18. Coming back to the UK we all got stopped and asked to open our cases by the customs chaps. I guess they didn't use xray as the first thing he saw when he opened my case was a small tuper ware container. His eyes lit up with the prospect of finding 100 E's or some other henious crime.

Naturally he opened it with a quizzical look and asked me what it was, when I told it was raspberry jam my mum gave me he gave me the most embarrassing look ever. Guess he thought international smugglers don't tend to take care packages from their mother :rolleyes:
 
mike von shizzl said:
Went on the cliche filled end of school trip to Magaluf with my friends when i was around 18. Coming back to the UK we all got stopped and asked to open our cases by the customs chaps. I guess they didn't use xray as the first thing he saw when he opened my case was a small tuper ware container. His eyes lit up with the prospect of finding 100 E's or some other henious crime.

Naturally he opened it with a quizzical look and asked me what it was, when I told it was raspberry jam my mum gave me he gave me the most embarrassing look ever. Guess he thought international smugglers don't tend to take care packages from their mother :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Isn't that in breach though? You are technically carrying something somebody else has asked you to carry? :p
 
Got stopped on the way back from America, dad had lighters in his hand-held luggage :rolleyes:

He was in the room for about an hour and the plane was delayed one hour, lucky us! :p
 
Got stopped coming back from a mini cruise from either Portsmouth or Southampton (cant remember which) to Bilboa, Spain. As we were doing the cattle impression shuffling towards the gate, customs were walking a sniffer dog up and down the queue, the sod thought it would be fun just to sit down in front of me and stare.

Suffice to say I was taken to a small cubicle, bags searched, asked umpteen times if I had any drugs on me etc, I of course said No. After they had ripped my luggage apart and been told that I didn't do drugs, never done drugs etc they asked if I would consent to a "clothing search". Had visions of the vaseline and rubber gloves but the guy said that they would just go through my clothing I was wearing. So off to another cubicle where two huge blokes watched me get naked, then asked for the money shot where I bend down and touch my toes (yup, this is where I got worried waiting to hear the snap of the rubber glove, but never came).

Suffice to say they gave me my clothes back and took me back to the original customs guy who looked a bit disapointed he hadnt caught a drug dealer. I offered to let the dog sniff me again and it completely ignored me second time.

Can laugh now though.
 
Just a quick pat down at an airport before after setting off the alarm a couple of times, nothing major. The only other time was when I was driving to Brussels with 2 friends. At Dover we were asked to drive into a seperate shed thing before boarding the ferry. Just asked me to step out the car and had a quick look in the boot and asked us where we were heading. Think they took a glance under the car too. It was just a random stop and search I think, they did it to several other cars too.
 
Never been searched, but today I came through Heathrow and breezed through customs as they were very busy counting out packets of cigarettes from some dude's 80-litre rucksack! Straight into a transparent disposal bag. Poor guy. :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom