The Cellar  

Go Back   The Cellar > Main > Home Base

Home Base A starting point, and place for threads don't seem to belong anywhere else

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 06-28-2012, 04:02 PM   #1
chrisinhouston
Professor
 
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Houston TX
Posts: 1,364
Turned down by the CBP for Global Entry as a "high risk" traveler!

Oh the shame, the shame!

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...
__________________
Goodluck Jonathan 2015
chrisinhouston is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-28-2012, 04:27 PM   #2
DanaC
Shipwrecked and comatose
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Yorkshire
Posts: 20,071
I think that makes you our moral compass...
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rhianne View Post
If I had a pound for every time Torys have said they are going to sort out the country's problems then I'd be rich enough to live under one of their governments.
http://sites.google.com/site/danispoetry/
DanaC is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-28-2012, 05:20 PM   #3
footfootfoot
This Space For Rent
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: in the house and on the street
Posts: 14,229
Quote:
Originally Posted by chrisinhouston View Post
Oh the shame, the shame!

...explanation...

I'm just so ashamed, I hope my crime record will not make me ineligible to be here at the Cellar...
You'll have to sit on the Group W bench with Gravdigr and plthijinx.
__________________
...this reads like a cross between Cosmopolitan's 'ten ways to please your man' and a suicide note written by Nostradamus on a coke binge. - Flint
footfootfoot is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-28-2012, 10:13 PM   #4
monster
only 99c
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Tena City
Posts: 24,133
and partofme's mom
__________________
The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity Amelia Earhart
monster is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-28-2012, 10:38 PM   #5
footfootfoot
This Space For Rent
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: in the house and on the street
Posts: 14,229
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
__________________
...this reads like a cross between Cosmopolitan's 'ten ways to please your man' and a suicide note written by Nostradamus on a coke binge. - Flint

Last edited by footfootfoot; 06-28-2012 at 10:59 PM.
footfootfoot is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-28-2012, 10:54 PM   #6
monster
only 99c
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Tena City
Posts: 24,133
Quote:
Originally Posted by footfootfoot View Post
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 loose 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
or take my whole momma
and post her pic on mugshots
cruel
__________________
The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity Amelia Earhart
monster is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-28-2012, 10:59 PM   #7
footfootfoot
This Space For Rent
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: in the house and on the street
Posts: 14,229
Quote:
Originally Posted by monster View Post
cruel
I'm mortified that you didn't correct loose to lose.
__________________
...this reads like a cross between Cosmopolitan's 'ten ways to please your man' and a suicide note written by Nostradamus on a coke binge. - Flint
footfootfoot is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-28-2012, 11:01 PM   #8
footfootfoot
This Space For Rent
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: in the house and on the street
Posts: 14,229
Quote:
Originally Posted by monster View Post
cruel
Oh I can't take another heartache
Though you say you're my friend...

stop me now.
__________________
...this reads like a cross between Cosmopolitan's 'ten ways to please your man' and a suicide note written by Nostradamus on a coke binge. - Flint
footfootfoot is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-28-2012, 11:04 PM   #9
monster
only 99c
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Tena City
Posts: 24,133
Quote:
Originally Posted by footfootfoot View Post
I'm mortified that you didn't correct loose to lose.
Why would I? Who doesn't want to loose it?
__________________
The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity Amelia Earhart
monster is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-28-2012, 11:05 PM   #10
monster
only 99c
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Tena City
Posts: 24,133
.....well Sheldon, maybe.....
__________________
The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity Amelia Earhart
monster is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-28-2012, 11:33 PM   #11
plthijinx
as filthy as a good set of beer goggles
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Friendswood, Tx.
Posts: 4,059
Quote:
Originally Posted by footfootfoot View Post
You'll have to sit on the Group W bench with Gravdigr and plthijinx.

yeah come on over here Chris...we have a fresh batch of hooch ready to go!
__________________
Philthyism #69.1 - trust me on this one. Don't EVER masturbate after slicing up fresh jalepeno peppers!

Philthyism #69.2 - **WARNING** reading Infinite Monkey's posts maybe hazardous to your beer's health! oh. and your keyboard and monitor too because of said beer.
plthijinx is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-29-2012, 06:18 AM   #12
ZenGum
Doctor Wtf
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Badelaide, Baustralia
Posts: 12,475
So, the government can find documents about you but make it effectively impossible for you to find those same documents.

That ain't right.
__________________
Shut up and hug. MoreThanPretty, Nov 5, 2008.
Just because I'm nominally polite, does not make me a pussy. Sundae Girl.
ZenGum is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-29-2012, 11:32 AM   #13
Sundae
Co-Strawberry Festival Queen
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Ye Olde Englande
Posts: 20,300
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?
__________________
none thought of the others they would never meet, or how their lives would all contain this hour

Last edited by Sundae; 06-29-2012 at 11:40 AM.
Sundae is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-29-2012, 12:08 PM   #14
BrianR
Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Dallas, TX
Posts: 3,338
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.
__________________
Never be afraid to tell the world who you are. -- Anonymous
BrianR is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-29-2012, 01:02 PM   #15
infinite monkey
We go together like pp^^
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 10,697
Then you'll like this

__________________
Survivor: Higher Education. Season Premiere!
infinite monkey is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 11:41 AM.

Help fill the mug... click to donate
Which also leads to my friend Pat's pet rat. She was given to him as a house warming present(yes Wierd! fits him though.) He had her for a few weeks and couldn't think of a name. To choose a suitable name I asked what her personality traits were. He said that she was pretty, intelligent, didn't care who was holding her as long as she got food and attention. I was stumped until my wife's voice came from the kitchen "Julia Roberts"! And so a rat was named. :)
- Jim Wile

Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2013, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.