Have you ever smuggled anything into Canada?

[suntan]

Originally posted by AndyL
Only accidentally...

Friend sent some plants - got them, then tried to order some more from a retail source - then I got educated...

Amusingly there was no attempt to hide the material, was even labeled as live plant cuttings on the little sticker for customs... Should have been destroyed but it was delivered...

From the US? There's not much restricted for plant material these days if you're not a business.

[Darell_n]

Drove a new straight piped $20k V8 engine that was 10 hrs old, across the border. No questions asked whatsoever.

[Buster]

I wore a watch back from the US once.

[suntan]

Originally posted by Buster
I wore a watch back from the US once.

[AndyL]

Originally posted by suntan
From the US? There's not much restricted for plant material these days if you're not a business.

At that point you needed some certificate from a horticulturalist and a cites inspection...

Neither of which was going to happen.

[suntan]

Originally posted by AndyL


At that point you needed some certificate from a horticulturalist and a cites inspection...

Neither of which was going to happen.

Your friend's or the retail place?

[Kloubek]

I had some pepper spray sent to me via ebay. Came through without incident. Found by cops during a traffic stop, but they gave it back....

[haggis88]

Probably accidentally

When i was traveling to Texas a lot for work, I was stocking up on mega amounts of vodka and rum, talking that I was bringing back 6x1.75ltr bottles per time...always declared it, only had to pay once.

The amount of duty I owed the Canadian government...? $28 measly dollars, still a bargain considering the price that it sells for in liquor stores here

The Border guards usually thanked me for declaring and sent me on my way with no fees to pay, one basically told me that they're not looking for the honest people, they wanna hit the people being sneaky cos obviously the fine would be a LOT more than $28

[ExtraSlow]

Once brought back a couple bottles of Sake from Japan. Declared the 1.5L, and then DID have to pay the duty. You guys that get away with not paying piss me off.

[diamondedge]

Never.

I once bought 6 bottles of Cholula hot sauce for a whopping 6 bucks USD coming back from the US. (Here they charge you something stupid for a bottle) and I declared them.

Guy laughed and sent me on my way.

[HiSpec]

I usually declare all my things. But one time coming back from HK, I forgot I purchased 6 packs of Melvius cigarettes the night before my departure and left them in a backpack in my suitcase. Didn't declare it (did for other items I purchased) and they said anything at customs. *whew*

[Mitsu3000gt]

Nope. And whenever I've been honest about my overages or questionable items, every single time they have waived all duty and I have never had my luggage searched. It's simply not worth it, and it doesn't slow you down to declare unless you are bringing some straight up illegal substance/item back.

[nickyh]

Coming back from South Africa many years back I had $50 Cdn of Biltong (jerky) with me it had been vacuum sealed, about 5L of booze, plus a whole bunch of curry spices.
My plane was delayed in Heathrow so I also bought sunglasses while there, but that delay and not sleeping on the flight back meant I was awake over 30hrs.

I declared the meat but couldn't do simple math on how much booze I had and forgot about the sunglasses even though they were on my head.
The meat survived a week in my luggage with a pit bull in the house and the border guards took it from me. I should have sat and ate it while they ripped my luggage apart looking through everything.

They were very pissed off that I could not answer simple questions, I was so tired even my name was a challenge to recall.
In the end no fines on the booze or anything else, since I declared the meat I was basically free to go.

I'm still pissed off about the Biltong.

[jdmakkord]

Backpack full of cigars, declared 50 when I brought in close to 300. I'm not willing to pay the 200% plus duty they charge on premium tobacco.

[G-ZUS]

Drove over into Detroit from Windsor a few years ago, broke back some shisha tobacco. We brought 250g each, allowance is 200g. We thought we'd be honest and declared them on the way back into Canada, "Since you were out under 24 hours, you dont have an allowance". Duties were $100 or $150 on them, we told them to keep them LOL.

[n1zm0]

I always rip all the price tags off the clothes I buy before I pack up for home, my SO didn't think it was necessary and she learnt her mistake coming back from Vegas the one year.

My mom used to pack tons of bakkwa, basically meat jerky especially the beef kind, from SE Asia. Strategically layered under rather pungent pickled vegetables my grandmother made and on top of that, sheets of fermented shrimp paste. Not being allowed to bring foreign beef into the country she never declared it.

I remember the one year, a CBSA officer in Van randomly searched the suitcase with all that in it, opened it up and the look on his face from the smell caused him to hold his breath, lift a couple bags up then close it and ushered us along. I finally realized why my mom put all the smelly shit in one suitcase like that.

[lasimmon]

I've "smuggled" 6 beer before. Bought a case and a 6 pack and didn't claim it. I belive the limit was a 24 pack so I was over.


Funny enough on my way back from Seattle last week I told him I had 3 beers, he actually made me show him since he didn't believe I only had 3. He laughed and sent me on my way.

[cet]

When I was younger I used to either just declare the maximum, regardless of what I had bought or declare some things and leave other things, like clothes, undeclared.

A couple of years ago I drove down to Sweetgrass to pick something up. When asked at the border I forgot how much I had paid for it so just estimated at about $400. I went inside to pay and upon giving the receipt to the guy inside figured out that it was actually worth $500.

The guy inside started giving me all kinds of grief about mis-declaring. Telling me that there was $100 dollars leeway on what you declare. If you are outside of that, your items can be confiscated and your account would be flagged, which would make travelling much more difficult.

I have Nexus now and travel to the US a few times a year for work. I make sure now to declare everything as accurately as possible and keep the receipts. As others have said; it's not worth the hassle if I was to get stopped.

Just a note: they figure out the value of your items based on the current days exchange rate. Not on the rate the day that you bought it.

[freshprince1]

Nice try, NSA!

[Thaco]

whenever i go for the weekend, i buy 30 packs of beer and just tell them i have a case (per person), not really lying but omitting details, they never question it, but realistically for a dozen beer, i dont think they'd care.

and anything i use down there, liek clothing, tags removed, and worn, i wont declare, but realistically i never go over the limit anyway, just a little less fishy if you're not near the limit.

oh, and one time, i changed the brakes and rotors on my car in the parking lot at the hotel because i had ordered a lot of stuff from rockauto and i would have been over the limit by $200, so i didn't want the hassle.

All petty stuff