And not worth the cost of representation.

My guess is that there's a statutory limit on liability for luggage damaged by TSA just as there is when it's the airline's fault (unless you pay extra).

Second, who wants to go up against the US government in a civil suit, especially the TSA?

Poor man. But to an ag inspector, they were made of bamboo and there are pests that like bamboo, I suppose.

They bring in more decorative bamboo plants every day, and if you plant them in your yard, good luck ever getting rid of it.

For crying out loud, they didn't have to destroy a single thing. This is insane.

I agree with you, but rules are rules and all that.

The plants were dead, carved up, and no longer able to disseminate in the wild, which is what that rule refers to. Unless you mean that all bamboo flooring now needs a certificate.

I didn't mean to suggest it was OK, so much as to try to explain what might have motivated the clearly poorly trained TSA people.

And I don't think there will be much he can do about it except to make a claim like others have in the past for laptops, jewelry, etc. damaged by TSA.

Apparently, TSA has had to pay out various sums for damaged goods. The graphic below represents claims for damage that occurred at McCarran airport in Las Vegas.

This was US Customs, different agency, and it is no man's land.

From the article it sounds like he was having a conversation with an agent with the goods right there, which suggests it was while being screened, in his presence.

Last edited Tue Dec 31, 2013, 08:50 PM - Edit history (1)

That border. It has zero to do with TSA, which is in the United States.

The major problem he has is that this happened in the nebulous land of not in the US quite yet.

Yes, he was having a talk, with a US Customs officer who was doing an agricultural check, same guys and gals who will destroy that expensive genoa salami you decided to bring home from Italy, the same guys and gals I declare my Mexican candy every time I go visit.

They have bubtkis to do with TSA beyond maybe being part of DHS.

And blame ydish for that, one of my dad's fave sayings, came straight from the shtetl

The Yiddish for goat shit, or nothing.

Yes, yes it did.

It's a travesty, but no one's going to do anything to fix it.

See my reply to nadin.

All 100% cotton or wool clothing would be illegal. Rules may be rules but ya can't fix stupid!

But these agents don't seem to be trained, or at least this one wasn't.

How very sad.

And it just depends on where you go and who you get. European countries are the easiest to get in and out of. Canada is a pain in the ass, and if you get some gung-ho idiot it's a bitch to get home sometimes too..

Yes, we'll 'seize' that Stradivarius since it was made of protected wood. Trust us, we'll destroy it, we won't re-sell it or keep it to ourselves.

Not minimally processed. Old. And familiar. (No, it's not reasonable to expect a middle-wage custom's agent to be familiar with every possible product from every possible culture. We can't have expectations that we are fallible but others must be omniscient and perfect and call them "reasonable".)

Folksy flutes tend to have a lot less processing. Not lacquered and such by and large, not to the same extent.

It's not just minimally processed bamboo.

You don't want to bring a guitar with the wrong kind of wood into the US without having it properly documented and certified first. Brazilian rosewood and a variety of other woods are restricted by CITES. Even if you've owned the guitar for 30 years, take it abroad, and are on the way back you'd better have your butt well papered.

One of the major manufacturers of guitars recently had a shipment of ebony confiscated. Didn't have the right documentation. CITES.

because there's one tiny section of the bow handle that has some ebony in it.

The customs agent didn't even glance at the bow, but kept focusing on the violin, which is made of non-protected spruce and maple. Finally after he decided the violin was OK, he let me through, without even noticing the bow.

Disgusting.

This little baby gets transported occasionally :



The Creole Bania (above), currently on display in the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde (National Museum of Ethnology; Leiden, the Netherlands), is considered to be the oldest extant example of the early gourd banjo (c. 1620 – 1860), the Afro-Creole/African American plucked spike lute that was the original type of banjo. [1] It is thought to have been collected in the northeastern South American country of Suriname (also formerly known as Dutch Guiana) by Captain John Gabriel Stedman (1744-1797), sometime between 1773 and 1777. [2] During this period, Captain Stedman served with Colonel Louis Henry Fourgeoud's military expeditionary force, made up of foreign "volunteers," sent from the Netherlands to subdue "revolted Negroes" during the Dutch colony's First Boni-Maroon War (1768-1777). [3] These “revolted Negroes” were, in fact, Maroons, escaped African and Afro-Creole slaves who formed independent communities in “the bush.” Today their descendents constitute distinct “tribes” (ethnic/linguistic groups) throughout the Caribbean and Latin America.

http://banjoroots.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/stedman-creole-bania-look-at-worlds.html

Dread to think of them doing it to that.

including Chinese gourd flutes, violins, drums, rattles. I've never been stopped, but then most of the time it never occurred to me to declare them as "agricultural."

This guy might have been better off just packing it in his luggage and not saying a thing.

Last edited Tue Dec 31, 2013, 07:29 PM - Edit history (1)

I needed a walnut media tumbler of the type used for polishing pin ball machine ball bearings. The US supplier could supply 240v but couldn't export to the EU. Had that shipped by a banjo buddy in VA as "cake mixer - wedding present"

There are also issues for example with the celluloid binding used on guitars and banjos which can no longer be carried by air and as such Stewmac for example will no longer mail here. However - a complete guitar or banjo with binding already fitted passes ok.

I guess with drums there's always the risk someone will ask which animal skin it is and also "what's inside the rattle".

EDIT TO ADD : Forgot to mention the polisher was solely for polishing antique banjo parts.

'Cause really? A flute is only an "agricultural product" when the TSA wants to fuck you over. And with his current name of Boujemaa Razgui, you know the TSA is looking for ways to fuck him over.

(juuust anticipating)

industrial-strength

instead of Obama?

This, of course, means the end of the Republic.

Bureaucrats can be dumb. I hope you are perfect at your job.

...then why in the hell didn't they just say "Get these out of the U.S., put them on the next plane going back home" instead of wantonly destroying them?