Anyone ever have a package opened by Homeland Security . . . ?

I'm not sure what to make of this . . . . .

Shipped from a guy in Canada to me in Atlanta, but he used an American return address.

His Canadian return address was on a sticker on the back of the package . . . .

Anyone ever experience this?

Z

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If I was the sender, I'd be laying low! j/k

 

The only time I have had a parcel opened by customs was a parcel I received from the Order of Malta - a book about the Order's coinage.

 

Yes, I did, when I bought a kilo of Nigerian Zircons. It went from Nigeria to Texas, back to Nigeria ( I received a letter that they had determined that the package was slightly radioactive.) I referred them to a US geologist who said it was natural and about the same as on a glow in in the dark watch, so back to Texas and then to my home post office where they didn't know what all of the stampings and attachments meant, so I had to go down and pick them up from their safe. I am sure, I am still on some databases , somewhere


Beautiful Zircon stones.
Jim

 

I've had a couple opened in the past but none of my coins (they opened my boots lol)

 

When Homeland Security opens a package to check it for contraband, or whatever reason, they put that tape on it to show you that they opened your package.

As you probably know, everything, and everybody crossing the border is subject to inspection, including your packages.

 

Only 1 that I remember.

 

I have had a few disappear while passing through customs. I assume they were opened before they were pilfered.

 

Coins from Canada what a likely story.
What's really going on here Z? Fess up

 

The issue that I have is there was a big greasy fingerprint on the proof silver coin within.

The coin was in a plastic flip. Sellers photos had no fingerprint.

Homeless Security cain't tell the difference between ganga and maple leaf sqeezings?

Z

 

You can file a tort claim with CBP if any of your property was damaged.

 

He used an USPS postage label instead of a Canada Post label and mailed it from Canada, enough to raise suspicion. He probably has a USPS account and does that because it would be cheaper then Canadian International Postage. Shady for sure, and that probably flagged it at the border. Not sure, but that might even be illegal, or at least something Canada post would want to look into.

 

I have a pretty bad record of packages going to or from Canada just going missing.

 

I’m sure he lives in Canada but close to the border so he maintains a residence in the US. That happens a lot and it makes good business sense without going into all the details. I’ve seen that a hundred times.

 

I guess I should just consider myself lucky to received it.

Z

 

When I was in high school (1960 or so), I sent a letter to Radio Moscow saying I was the president of the US-Russia Friendship Club (lie) and would like to get some information about Russia. A package arrived at my home that had been opened by customs in New York and then forwarded to customs Chicago and opened again before I got it!!! Explaining this while I was processing for the Army is another story..........

 

Not DHS but BATF and FBI some years back. Had a perfectly legal/legit gun shipment from FFL to FFL take a "brown" turn and end up at an unsuspecting residential address 1000 miles away...they panicked and called the world. Took 3 weeks to straighten out to their satisfaction. I haven't used brown since.

 

I remember a month after 9/11 my wife & self were to fly to Tampa to visit her family. Security was tight and Homeland Security was at the airport (TSA wasn't in place yet until about month later). They even had the National Guard helping out with screening. My ticket was purchased using my first & last name, not my full name. It is the same as my Grandfather's. He was a frequent flyer of the same airline, but was deceased. They thought I was assuming his identity. They did their 'take him away' strip search thing on me. They were especially interested in my carry on shaving kit. It had a jewelry loupe, tweezers and traces of acetone in a bottle with 3 no date buffalo nickels. They even popped the back of my watch off to check the innards. Finally satisfied they let me through.
Now here's the kicker...they didn't even check my wife or her purse. In her purse she had a can of mace and in the pocket of her slacks she had her work box-cutter. She didn't even remember she had these items until we were airborne. On the way back home she put the offending goods in her luggage that was put in the plane's belly.
Glad we arrived early for that flight. After all the rigmarole I went through, we still boarded on time.

 

Once I accidently forgot to click no international shipping (after an app update which automatically used international shipping as a default setting) on an eBay coin I listed. Didn't realize until I received an excited message from the winner in Portuguese. So I shipped it, expensively. Weeks went by with no tracking updates and several non excited messages from the winner in Portuguese that I got a rough translation from Google translate for. Long story short, said package was opened in Colombia by customs, and by opened, I mean torn almost to shreds, package taped back together and returned to me. A whole 3 month ordeal.

 

I ship packages and freight international all the time, and yeah, they inspect it, even when you are a known shipper, it really depends on how the description was filled out, if it had a schedule B, what it's origin and destination are, value, ect.

If something is missing on the commercial invoice or it looks shady, it's going to be searched for excluded items, or dangerous goods. Normally the dog or the cargo sniffer is enough, but many ways to raise a flag and get your package opened and searched. It can even be the shippers history that gets it searched. It's normal if you do a lot of shipping to see it from time to time. if you rarely ship international you might never see it, i see it a couple times to a handful a year. Mines usually a pallet that been opened and dug through then coated in CBP tape to close it back up.

Heck, I bought a bunch of TVs from New York to supply to a foreign country for a markup. The first shipment to me was fine by truck, by the 3rd shipment my State contacted me for an audit of our books because they noticed I was bringing in all these TVs from a different state and they thought they were owed sales and use tax.

Which they weren't as we have a RTE certificate, and it's sold out of country to someone else that's tax exempt also, still took them a year to complete the audit and cost us thousands to get whatever info they requested and accountant time costs and that's not even CBP . was the states record keeping at weigh stations of cargo manifests entering the state.