Customs took my whip!

[DR Ulloa]

So I was on the Disney Cruise this past weekend and packed my Caicedo for my Indy gear as there was going to be a costume party. Well, when my luggage is delivered to my stateroom, the whip is not in my suitcase and a note saying that it was confiscated by customs was left in its place. I called guest services before the ship left port and was told that if customs thought the whip dangerous they could confiscate it and return upon my arrival.

I was obviously pretty upset about this. Worst of all was that every other boy and father on this cruise was dressed as Indy on the 31st and half of them had whips. No one had anything even remotely decend hanging off their belt, but leather whips none-the-less. I got the whip back and its alright, but I am very upset about this. Its not like I packed a .45 cal S&W in there!

Dave

[Texas Raider]

I tell you what, those people going thru luggage is just WRONG ON EVERY LEVEL!! I won't go into a huge rant about this utter violation of privacy and what not, but I feel for you, friend. I'd have gone balistic and probably ended up in jail. At the very least, I'd have packed up and walked out AND gotten a refund. UNACCEPTABLE!

TR

[thatguyno1]

Man, what a bad break. You would at least hope that they would be consistent in their procedures especially on the very same cruise. At least the good news was you got it back!!

Paul ô¿ô

[Indiana G]

those guys that make bullwhips out of C4 have ruined it for all of us.........

good god.........what's dangerous with a bullwhip? if you packed a baseball bat, would that be considered a weapon too? how bout golf clubs or hockey sticks?....anything like what i've described is dangerous in the right hands.

i hate customs officers and their napoleonic complexes......i'd love to personally justify their reasoning of confiscating a bullwhip the next time i find one of them in a dark alley

[agent5]

Your real mistake was packing it in your luggage. It should have been in your carry on bag. At least you can explain yourself. Happened to me at LAX. I showed them the rest of my costume and explained my destination. They listened and let me pass with it.

Sorry to hear about your loss of gear, even if temporary. I was once forced to go to a con wihout a holster and I must say, I felt rather naked and incomplete without it.

[DR Ulloa]

I didn't think of that until after the whip was taken. Next time, the whip doesn't leave my carry on!

Dave

[whipwarrior]

I would be suing someone's ### off. That's an invasion of privacy, and I don't care who's doing it. The idea of ANYbody going through my personal property when I'm not there to monitor them... Why didn't you have a lock on your suitcase?

[Indiana G]

I would be suing someone's ### off. That's an invasion of privacy, and I don't care who's doing it. The idea of ANYbody going through my personal property when I'm not there to monitor them... Why didn't you have a lock on your suitcase?

i've been warned not to put locks on suitcases as customs will just take a bolt cutter to them if they really want to get in there.

i've accepted this as a necessary evil when travelling.

[agent5]

I would be suing someone's ### off. That's an invasion of privacy, and I don't care who's doing it.

While I agree, I think that right is pretty much taken away when you decide to fly commercial. Mr. Federal Gov't and pretty much do as they please. On the flip-side, my cousin is one of the head guys for baggage at O'Hare here in Chicago and he says that you can be fired just for picking up a bag that has fallen to the floor and opened up. You're supposed to leave it there and just ignore it until the proper people come to retreive it. He said that at least with United Airlines your stuff is 99.9% safe because the rules for the employees are even more strict than for the passengers. Still, I would never think of leaving my Dave Morgan out of my line of site.

[Indydawg]

I will resist the almost unbearable temptation to go off into a rant here, but, DUDE....what a crock of !@#$.

At any rate....if anything bothers me more than the invasion of privacy here, it's to know that our "baggage security professionals" are still as inept, inconsistent, and arbitrary as they have always been.

Guess that's what happens when you start hiring people out of a completely dumbed-down-to-a-paste-puddling-average educational system....that's assuming they actually received their "certificate of attendence" from said school system.

Hate you had to go at the trip sans whip, man....but it could be worse....they could have "lost" it during its confiscation.

Later on!

Indydawg

[Indydawg]

Seriously...your cuz said they could get fired for that?! I must be missing something, then....how can they have the "right" to go INTO someone's bag, but there, in plain sight of witnesses, they could get fired for doing nothing more than picking a bag up to secure it in a safer location?

Who's making these rules up?

Maybe I've just lived in the sticks too long....

[Indiana G]

i've heard of customs officers 'losing' valuable shipments here in my town....and have also heard that these people's families enjoyed some nice christmas presents.

if they want to provide their loved ones with gifts that are conceived from dishonesty, then that just shows everyone what kind of bolt they were cut from......er....should i say toilet paper.....POS they are.

[DR Ulloa]

What uspet me most is that I didn't get this taken away at an airport; I drove to Port Canaveral. It was taken away at the Disney port. At the very least, they could have confiscated all whips. Customs knew very well why somone would take a whip with them on vacation during Halloween.

I was given a receipt for the whip to pick it up upon arrival. Nothing against Gus, but if anything had happened to the whip I would have claimed that it was a Morgan and DEMANDED fair (for what I claimed it to be) compensation. I'm glad nothing happened to my whip, though.

Dave

[FloatinJoe]

Well, I'll be flying with my whips in about 8 hours and they will be checked luggage. Unfortunately, with the way things are today, I don't want to even try and get them through the security check point. If there were a way to have something rejected at security and go directly into checked luggage, sure. But unfortunately, if you lose it at security, it is gone.

[BullWhipBorton]

That is a real shame and in my opinion is ridiculous case, I can understand that in this day and age officials don't want to leave too much to chance but still why they would only take yours and no one else is odd, maybe yours looked too real.

Still I don’t have much faith in custom agents any more, fortunately you had the opportunity to get your whip back, I’ve known others not so lucky or the whip was damaged while in there “care”. viewtopic.php?t=25245

[Canuck Digger]

I won't make any appologies for the custom's agents, but I will say this, I have a friend who works for customs and she is the odd ball; she's not on a power trip and she's smart. But even she said that most of them are just idiot bullies who happen to be working on the legal side of the law, but a lot of them have the same personality traits as hoodlums. So with this in mind, I ask you can we really be surprised by some of their decisions? The other things is that they see a lot of people everyday and a lot who lie to them, so after a while they become a bit hard-line and if they are not of the common-sense ilk, then you can just see where this is going right?

Long story-short, if you are travelling out of your country with a whip, then either bring your el-cheap-O whip or have it taken care of by a broker. I'm sure that performers who travel have their tools shipped all the time and they must have a way of dealing with this. In my experience, whenever we wanted to ship something that might be troublesome for a person to carry with them, we had it shipped sepparately and taken care of by a broker. I understand that this is too much for a party, but then this is our world...

[agent5]

I absolutely can't stand Disney. It must be their fault somehow.

[DR Ulloa]

maybe yours looked too real

Of course it looked too real. Its a real whip! This isn't a jrzjoe we are talking about. Its an 8ft 12 plait Caicedo.

Dave

[BullWhipBorton]

Of course it looked too real. Its a real whip! This isn't a jrzjoe we are talking about. Its an 8ft 12 plait Caicedo.

I know, I know, what on earth was i thinking! I am just glad this one had a good ending.

[Indiana G]

I won't make any appologies for the custom's agents, but I will say this, I have a friend who works for customs and she is the odd ball; she's not on a power trip and she's smart. But even she said that most of them are just idiot bullies who happen to be working on the legal side of the law, but a lot of them have the same personality traits as hoodlums. So with this in mind, I ask you can we really be surprised by some of their decisions? The other things is that they see a lot of people everyday and a lot who lie to them, so after a while they become a bit hard-line and if they are not of the common-sense ilk, then you can just see where this is going right?

Long story-short, if you are travelling out of your country with a whip, then either bring your el-cheap-O whip or have it taken care of by a broker. I'm sure that performers who travel have their tools shipped all the time and they must have a way of dealing with this. In my experience, whenever we wanted to ship something that might be troublesome for a person to carry with them, we had it shipped sepparately and taken care of by a broker. I understand that this is too much for a party, but then this is our world...

how bout forwarding me some names and numbers?....



;-)

[BendingOak]

There are steps you can take when you travel to take items like this with you. You can even take a hand gun if you wanted , I have. Call the airlines that you will be traveling with and explain what you must take with you and ask them for there advice. They will tell you the steps you must take and you can avoid things like this from happening.

[nicktheguy]

I remember when I had to deal with my Nowak jacket being confiscated and getting it back without the bag that was made for it. Tony sent me a new one but man was I upset (I am sure you can find the posts about that if you dig around). I have issues with customs folk now...and my jacket wasn't even a weapon.

[DR Ulloa]

Now THAT is truly rediculous.

Dave

[BendingOak]

I remember when I had to deal with my Nowak jacket being confiscated and getting it back without the bag that was made for it. Tony sent me a new one but man was I upset (I am sure you can find the posts about that if you dig around). I have issues with customs folk now...and my jacket wasn't even a weapon.

Thats crazy.

[rick5150]

I have issues with customs folk now...and my jacket wasn't even a weapon.

Well, you could probably smother someone with it..

[nicktheguy]

Hmmmmmm....now that's an idea ;-)

[whipwarrior]

After reading this post and the other about the Bernardo whip being sliced by US Postal inspectors, I'm never taking my whip anywhere when I travel (unless it's in the US and I am driving). This paranoid attitude has gone beyond ridiculous. And it IS sad, because there was a time when I carried my bullwhip whenever I traveled (by plane and on trains), and I never had a problem with it. Even the airport inspectors were cool. They just told me to take it downstairs and put it into my checked baggage. Never again, I promise you. If I ever fly anywhere again, it's whatever gear I am wearing, and that's it. I would honestly have to kill somebody who attempted to confiscate my David Morgan bullwhip, never to return it.

[IndyFalco]

I second that, I would be SOOOOOOOOO mad if someone at customs confiscated my bullwhip. I'd be drop-dead mad if they never gave it back or "lost"it.

I'd get to the point were I'd rip a heart out of some folks

[Don't Call Me Junior!]

The last couple of times I've flown back to the US from smaller countries I've actually taken note when getting up to the customs and/or security areas where a sign is posted - NO WEAPONS - and then go on to name all the specific types of weapons that are not permitted and that they would be confiscated if found. Bullwhip was in the top ten! I tried to snap a quick picture one time because on a certain level I find the sign a little amusing but as soon as the camera came up they (the customs officers) started shouting at me to put the camera away!

[hollywood1340]

There are steps you can take when you travel to take items like this with you. You can even take a hand gun if you wanted , I have. Call the airlines that you will be traveling with and explain what you must take with you and ask them for there advice. They will tell you the steps you must take and you can avoid things like this from happening.

Excellent advice!!! Lets work WITH the system, not against it.

[bluzharp]

Forgive me for not reading the entire thread, but... DID YOU GET IT BACK? I hope...

[DR Ulloa]

If you are referreing to my whip and not the jacket, yes. When I disemabrked the ship, I picked it up at customs and the whip had been taken care of and didn't have anything wrong with it.

Dave

[bluzharp]

Good then. I always wondered about flying with a whip, not a cruise..I guess if you check it, it should be ok... ?? I'll check with the airline to be sure. Thanks for the advice on an earlier post I read. Anyway..I'm glad you weren't worse for the wear...

[BendingOak]

You have to see the other side here. These people are trained to see a weapon everywhere. Who ever thought a box cutter was going to such a big deal.

Also , most people think that a bullwhip is a striking weapon. Again, try to look on how to work with the system. We want to be safe but there is a price to be paid.

[bluzharp]

You have to see the other side here. These people are trained to see a weapon everywhere. Who ever thought a box cutter was going to such a big deal.

Also , most people think that a bullwhip is a striking weapon. Again, try to look on how to work with the system. We want to be safe but there is a price to be paid.

Good point. Ever since "9/11" we have all had to "pay the price" for security when traveling. Yes, it's sometimes inconvenient, but I for one don't mind, considering the possible alternatives....