Turned down by the CBP for Global Entry as a "high risk" traveler!
 

Oh the shame, the shame!:sniff:

I applied for the Global Entry program that lets you fast track through US Customs and got turned down. They have a very detailed application and in my effort to list everything that seemed relevant to my current life and travel patterns I forgot to mention that I had been arrested 38 years ago as a juvenile when I was 17 years old.

A friend in high school had given me a copy of the school's master key which I used to get into the school on weekends to print in the school's darkroom. Unbeknownst to me some other kids had a key and stole some stuff and got caught so I get arrested on susupicion of receiving stolen property! The detective who questioned me after my arrest figured out I was not involved with the others and suggested that the judge declare it a "dead docket" and I was free to go. Little did I know until now that this means I still have an arrest record even though no judgement or verdict was given and no plea on my part was made. I had really just about forgotten about it until the Customs and Border Patrol agent doing my interview asked me why I had not told him I had been arrested and had a record since it was on my background check!

After explaining my case he actually had a chuckle and seemed surprised that I was arrested for that, I reminded him that things were quite different in 1974. He gave me 30 days to contact the court in Georgia (I now live in Texas) and ask them for a letter releasing me or something to that effect. Yeah right! I tried to contact them by mail, email, and on the phone with no luck and one court clerk I actually got through to told me that they have no idea where the hand typed records from 1974 are or if mine was destroyed when I became an adult since that is what they used to do with juvenile records. I even spoke to the lawyer that handled my parent's probate and he agreed it was like looking for a needle in a haystack and it would cost several thousand in legal fees and might not be successful.

So I missed the deadline and got a letter saying I was rejected!

I just sent off a letter to the CBP Ombudsman to review my case and maybe reconsider me since I can't quite see that this event should make me a high risk traveler! So we will see...

I'm just so ashamed, I hope my crime record will not make me ineligible to be here at the Cellar...:jail:

I think that makes you our moral compass...

You'll have to sit on the Group W bench with Gravdigr and plthijinx.

and partofme's mom :bolt:

Part of me,
why not take part of me.
can't you see,
I'm so-so with out you
Take one arm
I want to lose it
Take a lip
I rarely use it
Your goodbye
Left me with eyes so dry
And I know that I
Am so-so without you
You took a part
un-needed by my heart
So why not part of me

cruel

I'm mortified that you didn't correct loose to lose.

Oh I can't take another heartache
Though you say you're my friend...

stop me now.

Why would I? Who doesn't want to loose it?

.....well Sheldon, maybe.....

yeah come on over here Chris...we have a fresh batch of hooch ready to go!

So, the government can find documents about you but make it effectively impossible for you to find those same documents.

That ain't right.

Brianna is on the bench too, but I'm not sure she needs the hooch at present.

Zen is right.
I has a (completely dis)similar situation trying to return a rented video-recorder back in the day. The store in my town had closed and no-one knew where to direct me - no paperwork (and it was all paperwork in those days) could be found.

Until someone, some slumbering giant of a mainframe, spit out my address and sent a threatening letter to my parents' address, threatening to take into possession any blood related children. As only my brother lived at home then my Mum was quite anxious and I got an ear-bashing. No contact details on the letter though. It was from a Department.

So Head Office were threatening but the individual staff were puzzled, laconic and in no hurry to get themselves involved. It took over a month to get it returned - in the end my fiance drove 30 miles and thrust it over the counter of another branch with yet another threatening letter taped to the box. Let them match the ends up.

Sorry to hear about your tangle with red tape, Chris.
All this time a marked felon and you never knew! I'd say it was hot, except really it's a ridiculous inconvenience. Also interesting that a "crime" that long ago means you are a risk now. I wonder if the rich and famous with far more recent arrests/ incarceration have to stand in line with Joe Blow at Customs?

I had a similar experience with Canadian Customs. I tried to enter Canada (the regular truck driver way). They dug up an arrest record from years before (charges were dropped, no adjudication) and told me to my face that they "didn't want my kind" in their country and to leave immediately.

Talking to a lawyer in that state, I was told that it is almost impossible to expunge police arrest records, that it would take a major court order and the cost would be tens of thousands, take years and with only a low probability of success at the end. The only real certainty was a huge drain on my funds.

I wrote off ever going to Canada and since that day have harbored a certain level of grudge against the entire country and it's inhabitants.

Then you'll like this ;)