16 hours ago, BestB said:

Wow, nice fiction and lovely vivid imagination . But for a laugh do tell what “supervisor” said when you told him you had lumbago ?

 

and do tell how you got back in to tell supervisor to be more efficient ?

 

????????????

Well, he realised he had to move the stuff himself, and was p..... off. And I stopped before the customs exit line, just to watch and make sure my wife had really left the building and disappeared. 

3 minutes ago, paddyfield7 said:

Well, he realised he had to move the stuff himself, and was p..... off. And I stopped before the customs exit line, just to watch and make sure my wife had really left the building and disappeared. 

Have you read Pinocchio book?

14 hours ago, Salerno said:

Of course you did  

Yes, if I hadn't done it, I would not have reported it here. In principle I'm a rather restrained person, but if I see nonsense going on, I can easily stand up and become quite extrovert

9 hours ago, BestB said:

Have you read Pinocchio book?

I'm out of that age.

14 hours ago, paddyfield7 said:

Well, he realised he had to move the stuff himself, and was p..... off. And I stopped before the customs exit line, just to watch and make sure my wife had really left the building and disappeared. 

Why would you do that? Did the Mrs have something dodgy in her bags?

9 hours ago, emptypockets said:

Why would you do that? Did the Mrs have something dodgy in her bags?

No, we had nothing to hide, but I predicted that the Supervisor wanted the bags back to the scanner to screen them again, this time with someone not sleeping behind the screen. But I replied that our luggage was scanned as requested by him, and that the other guy was sleeping was his and not my problem. And I couldn't bring the bags back anyway, as my wife had already left with them to do the TM30 at CNX IO. That's the end of the story.

13 hours ago, paddyfield7 said:

I'm out of that age.

You should , as you sure have vivid enough imagination ????

On 8/13/2019 at 3:44 PM, jastheace said:

someone from asia ? pls feel free to correct me...

South Asian (Indian/Pakistani etc.)

On 8/15/2019 at 9:32 AM, paddyfield7 said:

No, we had nothing to hide, but I predicted that the Supervisor wanted the bags back to the scanner to screen them again, this time with someone not sleeping behind the screen. But I replied that our luggage was scanned as requested by him, and that the other guy was sleeping was his and not my problem. And I couldn't bring the bags back anyway, as my wife had already left with them to do the TM30 at CNX IO. That's the end of the story.

The real end was that I said to the officer that he may follow me to the TM30 counter of their nearby IO if he wishes, but that was the moment he gave up.

I've never had my baggage X-rayed in Thailand, but I usually travel very light. Funny enough they hand-search my bag every single time I go to Tokyo when they realize I'm coming from Thailand or Philippines. Every time I see them X-raying in Thailand it is Asian people with multiple big suitcases. Either way better safe than sorry - don't bring more than your allowance of anything. I've heard horror stories about huge fines on undeclared items you should've declared.

Came back from Chicago via Abu Dhabi a few weeks ago and my 2 bags were screened for the first time ever, after several years. Just got a big smile and a thank you as I legged it out the door with my Wisconsin cheeses intact.

 

On 8/13/2019 at 12:36 PM, brucegoniners said:

Thanks. Nothing dodgy, just some supplements they may want to tax.

Presumably supplements that aren't available in LoS?

On 8/13/2019 at 8:49 AM, Kerryd said:

It's hit or miss.

When I arrived recently, I had a large, medium and small suitcase (matched set). As I headed towards the exit, probably 2 dozen people went through ahead of me and none were stopped.

I thought I was home free when suddenly one of the Customs guys flags me over and tells me to put one of my bags on the scanner. Didn't seem to care which one so I put the medium bag on it. The person running the scanner barely glanced at it and I was able to grab the bag and head out. Maybe 1 minute in total from putting the bag on the scanner until I was heading for the exit again.

 

As I headed out, there was maybe a dozen people behind me and none of them were checked. Not sure if they were doing a "every 25th person" or a "1 person every 5 minutes" quota type of system as they didn't really seem to be too concerned about the process.

(This was at Suvarnabhumi.)

Got to hand it to the guys at the Vancouver airport though. I packed a bunch of things from home to bring back with me, including 4 brand new Leatherman Supertools and a Balisong folding knife I'd had for decades.

While waiting for my flight (to Manila, then onwards to Bangkok) to start boarding, 3 RCMP came to the boarding gate and then my name was called out. I went over to see what the deal was and it turned out that someone had seen the Balisong in one of my suitcases during a screening before the bags were loaded.
(How they managed to figure out what it was when it was folded up and stuffed in with a bunch of other things I'll never know.)
I explained to the cops that I'd bought it on a trip to Thailand something like 20 years ago that I was heading back to Thailand where you can buy those things on every street corner (well, almost - in some parts of Pattaya at least). They said they'd have to confiscate the knife but they wouldn't charge me.

Of course, when I finally get home and go through my bags, turns out the 4 perfectly legal Leatherman Supertools were missing. I'm guessing that was what was seen on the scanner and when they searched the bag they found the Balisong and used that as the excuse for opening the bags.
Of course, if they had of charged me, I would have found out about the missing Supertools while I was still in Vancouver and then they would have been the ones in serious trouble.

Of course they screen all luggage after check-in when you are departing.
I recall it was a major news story when Thailand bought some new explosive detectors (not the little handheld pieces of fake junk but an actual hi-tech system used to scan luggage for traces of explosive before the luggage goes onto the plane). 
That's probably why Customs (on arrival) isn't too concerned with checking people as they know the bags have already been scanned at least once before arriving in Thailand and if there was anything illegal it would have probably been identified before the person ever got onto the plane.

So corrupt Canadian Customs officers stole your expensive tool knives. And incompetent officers missed illegal knife years ago.

I arrive on average twice a month with only hand luggage and never been stopped in over 30 years ???? ( i'm Caucasian )

My experience is that they do racial profiling and will stop sometimes Asian or African looking people with a lot of bags.

But that is minimal.

Arrived last week and yes they were x-raying random people. I simply walked around them without repercussions - yet?

They did everyone 4 nights ago


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Is cactus plant or exotic fish considered 'dodgy'?

Edited September 23, 20196 yr by EricTh

Walked right through as usual when we arrived a couple weeks back.


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Got back yesterday evening, and not even a token Customs Officer on duty. Great, my smuggled cheese, steaks and sausages got through unmolested.