My Blog, My Story

What a great day. I spent most of the day plopped in front of the TV watching Obama's inauguration. It was nice. Before I start my story, I just wanted to wish littlepapoose's a Happy Birthday. I'm glad I met you in the Etsy chats. I hope all your birthday wishes come true!

Ok, on to the story.

During the winter break, I usually go back to my home town for a couple of weeks to spend Christmas, my mom's birthday, and New Years with my family. I brought my bracelets and material with me just in case I get a sale or custom order. I am glad I did this, because I got some sales during my break. Ok, so time with the family was great, but it was time to get back to San Antonio. I pack all my stuff in my car. I have a 2 door hatch back that does not have a lot of space, so I have to pile everything in the back seats. I say everything because I always go back with more than I came with. I also had my pet rats with me. I had them in a small travel cage in the front seat, and their larger living cage folded and put in the trunk area. I say trunk area, because what ever trunk space I have is filled up by a large speaker box. So I have everything packed and ready to go.

Before I go on, I should mention that in between my home town and SA there is what is called a Immigration Check Point. For those of you that don't know what this is, let me explain. In the middle of nowhere, there is point on the highway were all vehicles must come to a stop while U.S Border Patrol agents ask you questions. These questions can be anything from where are you going to/coming from, what is your citizenship, where do you work, etc. They also have a narcotic detection dog which sniffs around your car while you are stopped. (I told you there was a dog involved)

So I arrive at the checkpoint and the BP agent asks all these questions: where are you going to, why, what school do you go to, where do you work, and then, what is your citizenship. Then I was asked to open my trunk. I pressed the button, then he ask me to pull over to the side. Oh great, here we go. So I pull over and wait. Four agent come up to my car. One asks me to turn off my car and get out. I do.

He asks me if I have any weapons or anything sharp in my pockets. I answer no.

Another agent come up to me and escorts me away from my car. As I limp away, another agent asks me if they can search my car. I answer, sure, go ahead. So they start looking through all my stuff, and then they put the dog in my car. The dog alerts them to something in my back seat.

One of the agents searching my car says to me, " I see here that you are advertising that you make hemp bracelets (I have those magnet signs), do you smoke marijuana. I answer no. (I'm a nerd,I have never done elicit drugs, I don't even drink alcohol). Then he asks, "Has anyone that smokes marijuana been in your car". I answer, no.

I see him pick up something off the floor of my car, hold it up to his face, and then shows it to another agent. The only thing that I have on the floor of my car is dirt and old leaves, and food particles(sometimes I eat in my car, so what). Maybe he thought one of the leaves was a marijuana leaf.

Then the agent with the dog opens my trunk and allows the dog to jump on my bumper and in my trunk to sniff around.

After all this, and not a damn thing found, I am told have a great day. They didn't even close the trunk for me.

So I have no idea what the dog was detecting. Here is a list of what I think it may have been.

• rats
• left over food (BBQ meats)
• hemp twine
• Hemp seed oil
• Rx drugs

I don't even know if any of those would alert the dog. But oh well. And this was the second time this has happened to me. Maybe it was being a young Hispanic with a nice car. I don't know.

So that is my story. Thanks for reading.