Fun with Homeland Security
Aug. 11th, 2004 04:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
patgundHad something rather.....interesting......happen to me on Saturday.
As several of my friends know, I have a hobby of traveling old highways, (Route 66, Hwy 80, Hwy 99, etc.), and taking pictures along the way. Saturday I drove along Old Highway 80 down to El Centro.
Just outside of Jacumba, I was taking pictures of some abandoned buildings, and parts of the 1910's alignment. This was interrupted when a Border Patrol truck drove up and stopped behind my car.
The nice gentleman in green came out to have a very polite "what the hell are you doing taking pictures out here in the middle of nowhere this close to the border" chat with me. I told him about my hobby, and between pointing out details of the old road, showing him the pictures on my digital camera, as well as the information I showed him on that route on my laptop, he said okay, we exchanged business cards, and he wished me a nice day and drove off.
The civil libertarian in me was tempted *not* to give him any sort of ID, but he already had my license plate, and since we were in the middle of nowhere, I didn't want to run the risk of any problems. He was a fairly polite officer though, and I think I ended up on his "harmless nutball taking pictures" list.
Note - the border is visible (like less than a 1/4 mile) from the old highway at this point. And I did have mapping software on my laptop - though I didn't show them that.
I suspect I may want to create a website of my old highway photos. Partly out of interest, and partly as a alibi.
Had a talk with the Border Patrol again today via phone. Asked how I should handle future encounters like this, and they basically told me that I did everything right and just repeat what I did should I ever get questioned by them again. And, to their credit, they apologized for any hassle this may have caused.
Still somewhat unsettled by it though.
As several of my friends know, I have a hobby of traveling old highways, (Route 66, Hwy 80, Hwy 99, etc.), and taking pictures along the way. Saturday I drove along Old Highway 80 down to El Centro.
Just outside of Jacumba, I was taking pictures of some abandoned buildings, and parts of the 1910's alignment. This was interrupted when a Border Patrol truck drove up and stopped behind my car.
The nice gentleman in green came out to have a very polite "what the hell are you doing taking pictures out here in the middle of nowhere this close to the border" chat with me. I told him about my hobby, and between pointing out details of the old road, showing him the pictures on my digital camera, as well as the information I showed him on that route on my laptop, he said okay, we exchanged business cards, and he wished me a nice day and drove off.
The civil libertarian in me was tempted *not* to give him any sort of ID, but he already had my license plate, and since we were in the middle of nowhere, I didn't want to run the risk of any problems. He was a fairly polite officer though, and I think I ended up on his "harmless nutball taking pictures" list.
Note - the border is visible (like less than a 1/4 mile) from the old highway at this point. And I did have mapping software on my laptop - though I didn't show them that.
I suspect I may want to create a website of my old highway photos. Partly out of interest, and partly as a alibi.
Had a talk with the Border Patrol again today via phone. Asked how I should handle future encounters like this, and they basically told me that I did everything right and just repeat what I did should I ever get questioned by them again. And, to their credit, they apologized for any hassle this may have caused.
Still somewhat unsettled by it though.
