Two Seattle men held at U.S.-Canada border for 2 hours for illegal chocolate eggs

[Newsjock]

Source: Canadian Press

Chris Sweeney and his husband were driving home to Seattle after a recent trip to Vancouver when they were stopped at the border for more than two hours and threatened with thousands of dollars in fines for dangerous contraband in the trunk of their car.

Their suspicious cargo? Half a dozen Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs, each filled with a tiny plastic toy — a childhood favourite in Canada but an illegal choking hazard in the United States.

... The popular German chocolate eggs are not sold in the U.S. because they are considered a choking hazard. They are also banned because the treats are considered adulterated food by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Sweeney said a border guard told him and his husband that they could be fined $2,500 per egg, and then ordered them to head to the port of entry, where they waited for more than two hours. ... But once inside, Sweeney said border staff later brushed off the offence and merely told them never to bring the Kinder Surprise eggs across the border again.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/life/all/Seattle+they+were+held+USCanada+border+hours+illegal+chocolate/6951750/story.html

[Dash87]

1. They were afraid the Cadberry Bunny would hatch out

[uppityperson]

2. Weird. I have brought them home many times. To be threatened @$2500/egg goes beyond any common

sense.

[kestrel91316]

4. I suspect this has a lot more to do with the fact that this is a married gay couple and

very little to do with chocolate eggs. Border guard probably was a fundie.

[drmeow]

10. Ding ding ding - we have a winner! eom

[treestar]

3. Wonder how one is supposed to know things like that

At least they eventually ended it reasonably.

[ailsagirl]

5. I loved the Canadian border guards

I was nervous when reaching Victoria via ferry but they were relaxed and kind and funny.

On my way back to the US, the American guards made me dump a sack of crunchy cat food-- I forget why-- something either to do with the ingredients or else where the cat food was manufactured. Thankfully, that was all, but one of the guards escorted me to the trash bin and all the people who were waiting in their cars stared at me like...what was she trying to smuggle?

[Retrograde]

6. I brought them back once

I even declared them. I must have gotten the Kinderegg fan at customs that day. (BTW, the chocolate is terrible: once the novelty value wears off there's really not much point to them, and they get smushed in transit anyway)

The import rules for food are Byzantine: I'm still trying to find a straight-forward, definitive answer on importing packaged dried beans. I once bought a box of chocolates at Heathrow stamped with a warning not to open in the UK by orders of HM's Agency of Whatever, only to find when I got it home that under the wrapping was a concealed notice that it was stamped "Not for export to US". I just declare what I bought and let customs decide.

Now, if they were bringing in citrus fruits or snails I would personally offer to help customs stomp on them (the snails, that is )

[applegrove]

7. I worked at the Departure lounge to the USA in Montreal's Trudeau Airport. Many of Americans

knew you could not buy kindersurprise eggs in the USA and would stock up with the ones we sold. I got the impression American kids knew about them and would tell their parents.

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. Dang...I was practically a rum runner the way I used to bring Havana Club in from Montreal!

I love the 90's!

[lindysalsagal]

9. "You give these little people some power and it goes to their head like strong drink."

The Dowager Countess Grantham: a.k.a. Dame Maggie Smith