Huh. Odd to see something about this... I personally witnessed something similar in Detroit a few years ago while crossing back into Canada and it has bothered me ever since.
At the Detroit entrance to the tunnel is a bus stop where one can observe people lining up their cars to pay the toll before entering the tunnel. On this one day, probably in 2000 or so, I was standing at the bus stop, waiting for the bus to take me back to Windsor. I noticed that American border guards were randomly inspecting cars, getting some people to pop their trunks and turning some back before they could pay the toll. I had crossed hundreds of times before and had never seen this before. Mind you, I didn't see anybody suffer anything more than being turned back, but it still seemed very odd to me.
When I finally got back into Windsor, I asked the Canadian customs people about this. They told me that it was a flagrant violation of international law to stop people from leaving; it is of course up to Canada to turn someone back, not the US). They also mentioned that the American guards might have been looking for large sums of cash, since it is apparently illegal to take it out of the US, despite the beckoning call of the Windsor Casino.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-31 05:46 am (UTC)At the Detroit entrance to the tunnel is a bus stop where one can observe people lining up their cars to pay the toll before entering the tunnel. On this one day, probably in 2000 or so, I was standing at the bus stop, waiting for the bus to take me back to Windsor. I noticed that American border guards were randomly inspecting cars, getting some people to pop their trunks and turning some back before they could pay the toll. I had crossed hundreds of times before and had never seen this before. Mind you, I didn't see anybody suffer anything more than being turned back, but it still seemed very odd to me.
When I finally got back into Windsor, I asked the Canadian customs people about this. They told me that it was a flagrant violation of international law to stop people from leaving; it is of course up to Canada to turn someone back, not the US). They also mentioned that the American guards might have been looking for large sums of cash, since it is apparently illegal to take it out of the US, despite the beckoning call of the Windsor Casino.