'Random' customs screening at Port Everglades

[Orator]

The onboard shops are required to report purchases over a certain amount. This might result in a red flag warning and trigger screening.

[TheCount]

Anyone have the experience of being pulled aside when leaving the ship, and told they had been selected for a "random" customs screening where you have to fill out the old paper form, and then are escorted to a special room in the customs hall for questioning by a customs agent? This process (which ultimately was no big deal) nevertheless did not strike us as "random."

 

Been there, Done that, no issues. Simply the Debark alarms went off when leaving the ship and then taken to the front of the line. Might have been because we used the Valet Baggage program and sent or bags ahead, or, it might have been some other "alarming situation" being Canadian :cool: may have caused. Was much quicker to get through the line for sure!!

[miched]

Yep, we have had “random” screenings and we are Caucasian grandparents so not at all suspicious.

Random means random, but I suppose the previous poster who had a large bank transaction sounds a LOT like he was reported......

 

My wife was selected. She is also Caucasian and a senior. I think the random process consists of picking someone out of a group that don’t fit their profile just to have numbers or proof that they aren’t always picking on a certain group.

 

Plus it is also a ploy by smugglers to use mules that look innocent like my wife and others also dress as a nun and etc.

 

Here in Michigan they recently caught a 90 year old male that was transporting drugs across the state line and confessed to doing it for years. He said he didn’t see anything wrong with it and wanted the easy money.

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[crazee4cruzin]

We were flagged one time because we had 15 bottles of liquor. Most of it was purchased in St. Thomas but we also had a few free bottles of rum and a six pack of beer. They made us go to the naughty room for 1/2 hour and then let us go. No duty needed to be paid. There was another couple in the room, at the same time we were, and they were going through all of their stuff by hand. The lady was mad. We just stood there quietly while they filtered through papers, etc. We had nothing to be concerned about.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

We've never been pulled aside at the cruise terminal but saw one woman who was when we disembarked on Sunday.

For some reason TSA in Pittsburgh often chooses me or my DH for a secondary screening, finger swabbing, bag check, etc., and we have TSA Pre. First time it happened to my DH he was nervous because it was the finger swabbing and he sold police equipment and supplies, was worried what might have been on his fingers, even though he must have washed is hands 50 times before we flew.

[DYKWIA]

I don't believe in "random" - resources are so tight (certainly in the U.K.) for all regulators / law enforcement the overwhelming majority are almost certainly intelligence or profile led. They just don't have the resources to be wasting their time (not yours) pulling lots of people in for random checks. Telling people it's a random check is a convenient means of skirting the fact that for whatever reason you fit the profile to be stopped at that time.

 

Remember reading about the UK customers officers and some of their operations. Some People are flagged the day they book their travel, they know when you travel out (and if on a cruise) precisely when you come back. They know when you disembark and through CCTV can follow you all the way through the terminal. Big Brother is definitely watching :-)

 

I remember the famous story 20+ years ago of the 2 U.K. Teenage Girls (not the typical profile for drugs dealers or mules) who were stopped at Bangkok Airport coming back from their holiday and found to be carrying Class A drugs. Turns out they were tracked from the day their tickets were brought in the U.K. - last minute cash purchase of tickets in their name by a third party. Unusual routing and expensive seats. Customs were onto them from day 1.

Edited March 7, 2018 by DYKWIA

[Covepointcruiser]

Pretty funny stuff, especially since all us white folks look the same, how could they possibly pick out the suspicious ones.;p My wife gets felt up every time she goes thru TSA, but not because she's 7 shades darker than me, her insulin pump seems to look suspiciously like and explosive device. They pat her down, swab her pump for explosive residue etc. We are used to it now but it's still a little irritating.

 

My husband is always pulled out for a pat down because of an artificial hip. It’s a pain but that is just the way it has to be, we are all penalized because of terrorists and other maniacs. Just cope with it, global entry or expedited clearances does not stop the extra screening.

[Nizzie]

I’ve been pulled out of line, not off a cruise ship, but at the US-Canada border driving home from British Columbia. I believe it truly was random because when I pulled up the agent was flustered - he’d been told to flag the next vehicle with 2+ passengers for a secondary immigration check but what he thought was a person in my passenger seat was a backpack with a baseball cap fastened to the top. I was sent to park while they figured out how to void the “passenger #2” passport check (thank goodness it wasn’t a customs check where they pull everything out of the car, just a passport and background check so it only took about 15 minutes.)

 

 

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[Luvcrusn]

I don't believe in "random" - resources are so tight (certainly in the U.K.) for all regulators / law enforcement the overwhelming majority are almost certainly intelligence or profile led. They just don't have the resources to be wasting their time (not yours) pulling lots of people in for random checks. Telling people it's a random check is a convenient means of skirting the fact that for whatever reason you fit the profile to be stopped at that time.

 

Remember reading about the UK customers officers and some of their operations. Some People are flagged the day they book their travel, they know when you travel out (and if on a cruise) precisely when you come back. They know when you disembark and through CCTV can follow you all the way through the terminal. Big Brother is definitely watching :-)

 

I remember the famous story 20+ years ago of the 2 U.K. Teenage Girls (not the typical profile for drugs dealers or mules) who were stopped at Bangkok Airport coming back from their holiday and found to be carrying Class A drugs. Turns out they were tracked from the day their tickets were brought in the U.K. - last minute cash purchase of tickets in their name by a third party. Unusual routing and expensive seats. Customs were onto them from day 1.

Quite a few years ago I was flying on a chartered flight from Gatwick Airport with a group of Temple University Alumni back into the US. I was the only one pulled out for random screening. DH and everyone else sat on the plane waiting for over a half hour while I endured a full body search, a thorough screening of our bags and then another full body search. I definitely felt like making a wise crack, but discretion I thought was the better part of valor. It had to have been totally random, since I've never had any legal or questionable issues in my life and don't fit any profile that would make me suspicious. Most times random is random!

[helen haywood]

Not at a port, but I was pulled aside for extensive security screening at the Barcelona airport. We were flying home from a TA. Some say the one way flight was suspicious; others say it was random. It scared me. They took me to another gate; I had no idea what they would do, how long it would take and what my options were depending on what happened.

 

 

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[Fouremco]

Not at a port, but I was pulled aside for extensive security screening at the Barcelona airport. We were flying home from a TA. Some say the one way flight was suspicious; others say it was random. It scared me. They took me to another gate; I had no idea what they would do, how long it would take and what my options were depending on what happened.

 

 

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Selection for more extensive pre-flight screening is different than selection for a customs' secondary inspection upon arrival at your destination, but in both cases random selection is one of the tools used. I doubt very much that the one way flight had anything to do with it, as BCN officials are well aware of the cruise industry and passengers returning home following TA's.

[lovecruzin]

Only happened to us one time at PE. We used luggage valet. Alarms went off when we disembarked, we were escorted past the line of hundreds of people waiting to go thru customs and taken to a room where we were asked to point out our suitcases. That was it!

Perfect timing for this to happen, DH had broken a rib on the cruise and not having to wait in line was a blessing...

[ken_ll]

Yes, it's happened to me and its random. I also have Global Entry, have an expedited loyalty status and am an old lady. I'm glad they check all kinds of people.:):)

I have Global Entry, airline status, am white and nearing my best before date. I always get “random screening” flying into US, like in 100% of the time. I always have “my search” in open as opposed to private room, as I have lots of folks watching. Never have an issue flying US to another country. Never selected coming off ships.

 

The reason for my being “randomly selected” each time probably was the result of flying into Jamaica two years ago to pick up cremains of a relative. Flew into Kingston one day, flew out of Montego Bay the next day via Miami. My boarding pass got the dreaded “SSSS” printed on it which results in a secondary search just before boarding aircraft.

 

So I just have to put up with “randomly selected” each time I fly into or via the US.

[smtcan]

I don't believe in "random" - resources are so tight (certainly in the U.K.) for all regulators / law enforcement the overwhelming majority are almost certainly intelligence or profile led. They just don't have the resources to be wasting their time (not yours) pulling lots of people in for random checks. Telling people it's a random check is a convenient means of skirting the fact that for whatever reason you fit the profile to be stopped at that time.

 

Remember reading about the UK customers officers and some of their operations. Some People are flagged the day they book their travel, they know when you travel out (and if on a cruise) precisely when you come back. They know when you disembark and through CCTV can follow you all the way through the terminal. Big Brother is definitely watching :-)

 

I remember the famous story 20+ years ago of the 2 U.K. Teenage Girls (not the typical profile for drugs dealers or mules) who were stopped at Bangkok Airport coming back from their holiday and found to be carrying Class A drugs. Turns out they were tracked from the day their tickets were brought in the U.K. - last minute cash purchase of tickets in their name by a third party. Unusual routing and expensive seats. Customs were onto them from day 1.

 

I have been selected twice in UK, Heathrow and Gatwick and also in several US airports. I have no reason to suppose it is anything other than random since I am a Caucasian grandmother returning home to Canada. I'm not sure what is suspicious about me, since DH who is always travelling with me, has never been stopped.

 

Sheila

[DYKWIA]

I have been selected twice in UK, Heathrow and Gatwick and also in several US airports. I have no reason to suppose it is anything other than random since I am a Caucasian grandmother returning home to Canada. I'm not sure what is suspicious about me, since DH who is always travelling with me, has never been stopped.

 

Sheila

 

plenty of Caucasian Grandmother drug runners in jail. Also, if their focus that day is to make elderly white caucasian travellers realise the duty free limits apply to everyone then on the day at that time you might fit the demographic to be picked.

 

If you arrived at Heathrow from the US at the same time as 5 flights from Sub Saharan Africa I think you would be very unlucky to be selected. In the absence of any intelligence suggesting otherwise I see no reason why Customs and Immigration officials would maintain any pretence of random selection - it would not be the best use of resource.

Edited March 12, 2018 by DYKWIA

[Esprit]

My SIL was randomly selected at Miami airport last Saturday for their flight to Madrid. He was with my daughter who is English. He however is Venezuelan!

[phoenix_dream]

I don't believe in "random" - resources are so tight (certainly in the U.K.) for all regulators / law enforcement the overwhelming majority are almost certainly intelligence or profile led. They just don't have the resources to be wasting their time (not yours) pulling lots of people in for random checks. Telling people it's a random check is a convenient means of skirting the fact that for whatever reason you fit the profile to be stopped at that time.

 

Remember reading about the UK customers officers and some of their operations. Some People are flagged the day they book their travel, they know when you travel out (and if on a cruise) precisely when you come back. They know when you disembark and through CCTV can follow you all the way through the terminal. Big Brother is definitely watching :-)

 

I remember the famous story 20+ years ago of the 2 U.K. Teenage Girls (not the typical profile for drugs dealers or mules) who were stopped at Bangkok Airport coming back from their holiday and found to be carrying Class A drugs. Turns out they were tracked from the day their tickets were brought in the U.K. - last minute cash purchase of tickets in their name by a third party. Unusual routing and expensive seats. Customs were onto them from day 1.

I don't agree at all - sometimes random is just random. Years ago we had our bags checked on a couple different cruises (and this was before 9/11 - go figure) but in recent years has not happened. I have, however, occasionally been pulled over at the airport for a random screening. Didn't say, do, or go anywhere other than places I had been before without being screened. My boarding pass had some kind of code and that was it. Since there was literally nothing different about those trips, and a machine picked me, I truly believe it was really random.

[MzAnne]

I don't agree at all - sometimes random is just random. Years ago we had our bags checked on a couple different cruises (and this was before 9/11 - go figure) but in recent years has not happened. I have, however, occasionally been pulled over at the airport for a random screening. Didn't say, do, or go anywhere other than places I had been before without being screened. My boarding pass had some kind of code and that was it. Since there was literally nothing different about those trips, and a machine picked me, I truly believe it was really random.

 

 

totally agree. Random. happens usually when you are in a hurry. :)

[DYKWIA]

totally agree. Random. happens usually when you are in a hurry. :)

 

Genuine random selection is incredibly difficult to achieve (even your Ipod and Spoitfy can't manage it).

 

Task a computer to pick a cross section off a passenger list and that's not random. Pick every 100th person as they disembark- not random. Ask a human to pick and even subconsciously they will fail because they might feel uncomfortable with the way the intial picks are going - people know that each spin of the roulette wheel is independent of the one before but still they want to believe that if there's been a run of 6 reds the next is more likely to be not a red.

[helen haywood]

Every 100th person sounds “random” to me...by which is not based on any profile or suspicions. The agent may know which person will be checked next but there is no way the passengers would. I think in my case I was just passenger #x.

 

 

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[phoenix_dream]

Genuine random selection is incredibly difficult to achieve (even your Ipod and Spoitfy can't manage it).

 

Task a computer to pick a cross section off a passenger list and that's not random. Pick every 100th person as they disembark- not random. Ask a human to pick and even subconsciously they will fail because they might feel uncomfortable with the way the intial picks are going - people know that each spin of the roulette wheel is independent of the one before but still they want to believe that if there's been a run of 6 reds the next is more likely to be not a red.

In the context of this discussion, I certainly think picking every 100th person would qualify as random. Is that literally the definition of random? No, when looking at it from the perspective of the computer. But your chances of being that 100th person are indeed random, so looking at it in that sense it would certainly be random. I agree with your point about roulette (or any gambling for that matter). Past results relate in no way whatsoever with future results. Lucky (or unlucky) streaks are as random as can be. There is no such thing as a 'hot machine' or a lucky number, unless there is a mechanical or technological issue with the equipment.

[Fouremco]

Genuine random selection is incredibly difficult to achieve

There are various levels of randomness. If you are playing a board game, a pair of dice is all that's needed. If you are running a major lottery, a sophisticated RNG operating with a large base is necessary. If you want to spot check passengers getting off a boat, picking every 100th passenger is sufficiently random for the purposes of the selection.

 

Pi has an infinite number of digits in its decimal representation, but high school students calculating the area of a circle probably only use four or so decimal places. I'd hazard a guess that theoretical mathematicians probably push it out a good deal further. Randomness, like mathematical accuracy, only needs to meet the needs of the job at hand.

[wave rider]

I am not sure why or how random it was, but a couple years ago we were pulled aside and escorted to border security area. The agent couldn’t figure out why we were selected either. But we were able to avoid a 90 minute line getting through with our friends by being pulled side. We headed to the airport and got there an hour before our friends. Needles to say they were a bit jealous!

 

 

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[the2cruisingwebers]

Anyone have the experience of being pulled aside when leaving the ship, and told they had been selected for a "random" customs screening where you have to fill out the old paper form, and then are escorted to a special room in the customs hall for questioning by a customs agent? This process (which ultimately was no big deal) nevertheless did not strike us as "random."

 

 

 

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[riclop]

Anyone have the experience of being pulled aside when leaving the ship, and told they had been selected for a "random" customs screening where you have to fill out the old paper form, and then are escorted to a special room in the customs hall for questioning by a customs agent? This process (which ultimately was no big deal) nevertheless did not strike us as "random."

Yes it happens.