Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (
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Notan <notan@ddress.com> wrote in news:432E307D.866B59E1@ddress.com:
>> Ditto. The last time for me was '94 or '95, bringing an ancient
>> sewing- machine-size Compaq "Portable II" back from a construction
>> site in the middle east (Dubai). I went
>> Dubai-Frankfurt-Atlanta-Orlando, and Customs in Atlanta had me turn
>> it on. I got everything but a BCS in Atlanta. I'm guessing they just
>> wanted to see if I'd gutted the Compaq and replaced the internals
>> with contraband.
>
> Ah, the good old days of worrying about contraband! <g>
>
> Notan
>
Funny this is - there's no harm telling it now - I actually *WAS*
carrying contraband.
In Dubai, I'd picked up half a dozen 12oz cans of R12 Freon for my car,
which I had stashed in my luggage. R12 had been banned in the US a year
or two earlier (except to certain licensees, which I wasn't) but was
freely available elsewhere in the world.
When I came through customs in Atlanta, they sidelined me and examined
every single item I had. They sent every piece of clothing and every
shoe through an X-ray. They thumbed through every magazine and notebook
in my briefcase. The whole thing took over an hour.
All during this, I'm trying to play it cool but my insides are doing
flipflops, thinking I'm going to end up 5 years in the Jug for illegally
"importing" Freon. Yet they looked right at the cans in my suitcase,
even held them in their hands, and let them slide without ever saying a
word.
Go figure...
- FM -