It Happened To Us

We crossed into New Brunswick at St Stephen today and we were searched.  The initial Border Guard had us pull into a space and go inside.  The BG inside was very nice.  The first question he asked both of us was, "which states have you lived in since you were 18?" I thought this was a strange question. Seems he could have asked instead, "where have  lived since you were 18?" Next he asked me to sit on the bench that was about 50 feet away so he could ask Bobby questions privately. He only asked him 2 questions, which were if he had ever been convicted of a felony and what he did for a living before retiring. Not sure why I wasn't allowed to hear these questions and answers. Then he called me up while Bobby sat on the bench. All he asked me was if I had ever been convicted of a felony. Next he escorted Bobby to the coach and asked him to open all of the slides.  Then he told Bobby to take Roxie with him back to the building to wait with me. The BG took about 45 mins going through the coach inside and out and our Honda. He found some firewood that he made us leave there. Then he gave us back the passports and we were on our way. When we got back to the coach it was clear he looked through everything, but he didn't leave a mess. We have no idea why we were searched in the first place. Our guess is that there wasn't anyone else at the border and their tourist season is starting up, so we were a good candidate for practice. Or it could be as simple as it was just the time to check someone.

Overall not a bad experience and now we are all set to enjoy our month in the Maritimes.

8) You must have that guilty look  8)

Enjoy your trip

We've never been searched going into Canada, just when returning to the US.

Hey, it's your lucky day - buy a lottery ticket. Or whatever they have in New Brunswick.

They searched you because you two look like Hooligans!

Answering where we?ve lived since we were 18 would have taken quite awhile. And he probably would have gotten different answers from both of us.

It could be as simple as the crossing decided to inspect every tenth vehicle and you were number 10.

IN my frequent border crossing days the Canadian customs used to hire college students to supplement staff during the tourist season. This staff seemed to be quicker to pull someone over for further inspection compared to career employees

We were searched once going south by an agricultural inspector, she confiscated a tomato. : Yours was likely a random search, they probably get 'hits' and it keeps everyone on their toes.

darsben said:

It could be as simple as the crossing decided to inspect every tenth vehicle and you were number 10.

IN my frequent border crossing days the Canadian customs used to hire college students to supplement staff during the tourist season. This staff seemed to be quicker to pull someone over for further inspection compared to career employees

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Now that you say that, the first BG did seem young. Not sure about college, but maybe just new to the job. Or yes, we were the lucky number of the day.