Confiscated by Customs.
 

I managed to come to the notice of the Australian Custom service on my Return from England.

Just wondered if anyone else had fallen foul, of our border guardians.

My crime, I bought an electronic fly swatter. Figured that it would be a Hoot at BBq's with the boys etc. Seeing as most Hardware stores in England were carring them, and they only run on 3v's of power, I hoped it might get through.

So I ended up wasting 8 quid at pollards, Courtesy of an xray scan of my Luggage.

The whole episode wasn't too embarrassing, The security and Customs people were pretty good natured about it. I got asked If I had an electronic fly swatter in my luggage, by the xray scanner guy. I said 'yes' He said dont worry, but thats a customs matter, He called a Female Customs official over (who coincidently, asked me because if my surname, if i knew someone she had worked with in the past, which turned out to be my cousin !!!!) From that point on, Everyone that dealt with me, Thought that a Electric fly swatter was a pretty damn good idea, and were very apologetic about having to confiscate it. Apparently they dont meet Aussie Standards.

Thank god I had the sense not to pack the BB gun, my brother had bought my son, I doubt if they would have found that amusing LOL.


Anyone got any similar stories.


Personally I reckon it was spotted in England, and messaged ahead.

Re: Confiscated by Customs.
 

The customs at hong kong took my nail clippers off me, but not off a man that went through after me.
Also they took off me a tiny screwdriver that mends glasses.

Most bizarre

Libby

Re: Confiscated by Customs.
 

can we expect to be seeing you on that "customs security" program or whatever it's called on channel 7 then??!

Re: Confiscated by Customs.
 

Border Security - it's a hoot!!

Loved the Chinese woman whose excuse for bringing in edible contraband was 'well I didn't pack the suitcase myself, my Brother-in-Law did'

Classic :p

Re: Confiscated by Customs.
 

Yeah or the one a few weeks ago, again a chinese/japanese student who said they should have reminded her to tick the yes I've got food as she had forgotten even though its on the card.

Re: Confiscated by Customs.
 

About 2 months after 9/11 I flew to washington on business out of heathrow with a colleague.

We went through the hand-baggage x-rays and he got pulled over, so Im stood next to him and they took his swiss-army miniature pen-knife that he'd forgotten off him...

But .. next to us at the search-table was this old lady -like typical old lady style, about 70+ yrs of age, white hair, big carpet-bag style Hand Bag, and the customs/security guys are saying to her (as they unpack her bag )

" So you're sure there are no knives in here" , " no"
" So you're sure there are no knives in here" , " no"
" So you're sure there are no knives in here" , " no"

As they pull out a electric carving knife that was about 18" long ! and she says, " well I dont remember putting that in my handbag"

Bloody classic , my mate & I were on the floor laughing.

Re: Confiscated by Customs.
 

I had a weird one once, got to the organic scanners and my kit bag went through (full of kitesurfing gear) and they ran it back and forward several times, followed by the worst line 'excuse me sir, could you step this way'. After being quizzed about food stuff or live animals (???) in the bag, I had to unpack the kit that had taken me ages to fit in.

It turned out that either the salt on some of the gear had attracted moisture or some sort of algae residue that was picked up as organic matter in the scanners, but I got through in the end. :rolleyes:

Re: Confiscated by Customs.
 

I came into Aus and declared my herbal tablets which I knew from my naturopath contained nothing that was banned in Aus. It was about 2 in the morning and the guys were obviously trying to stay awake or something because they started asking me what was in the one bottle of tablets (while they unpacked all of my & hubby's stuff!).

I said; "It says what's in it on the label." so they read the label & asked me again what's in it, I replied the same. So we went on, backwards & forwards until I finally took the tablets, sat them down & gave them a 30 minute lecture on the content of those tablets and what each ingredient did and whether or not the ingredient belonged to anything endangered (nothing did) etc. At the end of this they took another peek into my bag, in which three more bottles of herbal tablets lurked, and must have decided they weren't up for another lecture because they zipped it up double quick, put our stuff back in our bags & sent us on our way.

Re: Confiscated by Customs.
 

A couple of years ago (post 9/11 and the shoe bomber so bonkers US security) I was on an internal flight between Maui and Oahu in Hawaii (which for them is an internal domestic flight)

As we were spending the day in Oahu before flying on to Fiji, I didn't bother getting 'all dressed up' for the flight and was only wearing flip flops / thongs, shorts and a t-shirt.

After frisking me, emptying my pockets etc. the security guards then asked me to take of the thongs and actually scanned the soles of my bare feet. :confused:

Maybe they were worried about me concealing a gun under my toe nails??

Obviously I just smiled politely and let them get on with it, and them wandered onto the plane amazed.

Strange place, US customs.

Cheers
Scooterpom.

Re: Confiscated by Customs.
 

We were stopped in Sydney, the sniffer dog was having a field day with our hand luggage, they really thought they had found something, many cutoms officers came to watch, they were SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo excited. They said do you have anything to declare, we said yes, food as it says on our forms. The dog had discovered our pot noodle (kids hate plane food)
Everyone was watching, we found it hysterical, the dog was very excited, the customs guys were very disappointed!
I asked if they have pot noodles in Australia before I opened my bag, they looked at me as if I was crazy and said of course we have pot noodles!
You had to be there to appreciate this one. PMSL right now just thinking about it!
Tara
Tara

Re: Confiscated by Customs.
 

My Holland and Barratt stocks usually cause fuss. Primrose hocus pocus and stuff
Tara

Re: Confiscated by Customs.
 

when we flew to Aus in 2003 with Jonah as as teeny babe we asked the customs bloke at Manchester if we should declare the packaged baby milk we had in my hand luggage on arrival in Aus & after a moment of thinking he said "Hmmmm naw wouldn't bother as its sealed up!" ... surprised at this we asked the air stewardess the same question (Singapore air) who nodded her head & smiled & said "baby milk yes babeeee" so you can guess at this point we were SO confused! Anyhow, when we were completing the Immi / Customs Cards in on arrival I was so tired that I FORGOT to list it..... never mind the conflicting comments made about the ruddy stuff! So, at Some ungodly hour we were Dragging ourselves thru immigration at Brisbane, when a bored looked customs woman decided that she would look thru our hand luggage & found the baby milk! "Why didn't you declare it???" she asked in a very in yer face way LOL I didn't know where to out myself........ Her colleague came over & wanted to open the container & start putting his hands thru it & everything to check it but then my GORGEOUS little boy started screaming & sheepishly they said "oh just don;t do it again!" LOL and let us thru..... hehehehehe


Claire
x

Re: Confiscated by Customs.
 

Probably soon to be found in use at a BBQ, hosted by a custom officers... ;)

Re: Confiscated by Customs.
 

Well my wife and I were stopped going to the US because she had a 5ml bottle of nail glue. - confiscated it from her handbag and then let us through " sorry Madam that could be used as a weapon! :rolleyes: - but they didn't find the other two bottles in the hand luggage!

Then another time when we arrived in Perth during the foot and mouth outbreak they said "oooh you are from rural Lincolnshire - follow the yellow line to the inspectors." Two questions about our shoes and then they confiscated our QT powdered instant tea :mad: because it had dried milk in it :rolleyes: . They would not believe that foot and mouth could not be transferred by drinking tea :confused:

Re: Confiscated by Customs.
 

oh don't start me on foot and mouth
moved from London to slightly rural area in America during the outbreak and had to delare walking in mud!
Lived and worked in the City of London!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
very funny!
but again
you had to be there to appreciate it!
Tara