In case you were wondering:

Matt K

Matt K

Eurycotis
Found this while going through some older paperwork today. Its the receipt from when I had to pay 1000 for having 14 bugs in my luggage returning from Costa Rica. And Costa Rican soil still on the soles of my hiking boots.

Penaltyreciept.jpg


..So for anyone who thinks the fines are made up, think again. This could happen to anyone "bringing in bugs" from another country to the USA- and this is just the first-time offense charge. Was it worth it? No. The strip-search in the process made it less amusing to remember...

 
Jeesh, that's harsh for a first timer. What did that tarantula dealer get fined reently? I forget the convo over on AB but it was a LOT.

What kind of bugs were you carrying btw?

 
Ouch. I'd hate to see what the receipt looks like for vertebrate smuggling. :blink:

 
I just had roaches only. For vertebrates it starts at 10,000 I believe per my conversation (now three years ago) with them.

 
Where they sympathetic at all or your typical customs type? I've never met a pleasant customs, animal control, or fws officer lol. I'm not saying they can't be, but when I was a licensed falconer they were...less than pleasant to deal with.

 
NOT sympathetic in any stretch of imagination at all. Very harsh, raised voices, shoving, angry sounding always, highly aggressive. Even had me spend nearly a hour in a holding cell. Way overboard with the rudeness to the point of being rediculous. Horrible experience in almost every way. Probably the only thing that kep me out of jail was the two officers that days later came to my house to inspect what I own, and they were very impressed with the cleanliness of it all. Thank god for that.... something to be said for clean, uniform caging and lots of clean white formica shelving and counter tops...... also had almost no phorid flies that day too.

*Whew*

 
Wow they even did an inspection of your house?! What did they think you were ganna do? Maybe invade the house and senate with an army of roaches? Oh wait that's already infested lol. If any came to my house they would find the same situation, clean and well maintained. Because my enclosures are in my living room I am super diligent with cleaning the cages. Nothing dead sits for more than a day or so and so far phorids and other undesired pests have not been an issue. I did find a sealed container suddenly full of tiny black flies today though, it contained a spider and a beetle, both dead. I was surprised and tossed it in the freezer so I cam find out what they were. They didn't really look like phorids or fruit flies...almost like very tiny winged ants...

 
vfox said:
Wow they even did an inspection of your house?! What did they think you were ganna do? Maybe invade the house and senate with an army of roaches? Oh wait that's already infested lol. If any came to my house they would find the same situation, clean and well maintained. Because my enclosures are in my living room I am super diligent with cleaning the cages. Nothing dead sits for more than a day or so and so far phorids and other undesired pests have not been an issue. I did find a sealed container suddenly full of tiny black flies today though, it contained a spider and a beetle, both dead. I was surprised and tossed it in the freezer so I cam find out what they were. They didn't really look like phorids or fruit flies...almost like very tiny winged ants...
Click to expand...
Interesting....

 
Well as it was explained to me (as they see it), the tendancy for someone wanting to import 'unusual or atypical' livestock is to also have other types of livestock that are requiring permits or not allowed at all; so when someone is wanting to import something like a cockroach the likelihood of them having unauthorized exotics at home is pretty high, and/or being associated with someone who is involved with livestock smuggling.

While I know this is generally not the case, thier records indicate otherwise.

 
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