Adventures with a drug sniffing dog

[Sickman]

Last weekend Swim travelled to South Padre Island with some booze, an eighth of green, and a small pipe. Much fun was had on the beach drinking beer, swimming in the surf, and doing a bit of blazing. After a relaxing weekend, swim began the drive back with some leftover liquor and some leftover pot in the hold.

Fact: South Padre is located only a few miles from the U.S.-Mexico border at Brownsville.

Fact: Only two major highways run north from the border, and swim is travelling on one of them.

Fifty miles into his return trip north, swim notices a U.S. Border Patrol inspection checkpoint half mile in front of him on the road. Swim did not know about this checkpoint, but he's not that worried at first, because he is an anglo (white) U.S. citizen and probably looks reasonably clean to law enforcement officers. There are not any Phish or Grateful Dead stickers on swim's bumper.

As Swim approaches the large metal shed, he sees several agents milling around wearing green uniforms. One of them has a german shepherd on a leash. Before a car is waved through the checkpoint, the dog takes a lap around the car sniffing the perimeter of the vehicle. If the dog catches the scent of any smuggled items, you are BUSTO!

Swim has at least a gram or two in the trunk of his car, inside a plastic baggie. The baggie is inside a small tupperware container. The tupperware container is in an open cardboard bag. The bag is resting just inside the edge of the closed trunk of swim's car.

As Swim approaches the front of the queue, he punches the button to roll down the window. Swim's heart surges and his throat tightens as he greets the man running the show. "Good afternoon, officer," he says. Swim gets the feeling one gets when he knows he's about to get arrested.

The Man is a tanned hispanic in his early thirties, wearing silver mirror shades and a cowboy hat. A badge is pinned to his chest, and Swim hopes he didn't sound as nervous as he actually is when he greeted the cop. Fortunately for Swim, he is stone cold sober, and so are his friends.

The drug dog begins to make a lap around the car, while the Man peers at Swim and asks "Is everyone in the car a U.S. citizen?"

"Yes, officer," replies Swim.

Swim's mind is racing. Will they find the weed? If only it had all been smoked!

If Swim knew this was coming, he would have scattered what was left on the side of the road rather than take the risk. But because Swim didn't know the checkpoint was here, he was idling on the blacktop of a Texas highway surrounded by a dozen armed cops with only a layer of plastic and the metal shell of his trunk lid between a marijuana stash and one of the more sensitive noses on earth.

The hound finishes its circuit around the car. It didn't bark, or scratch, or whatever it is that drug sniffing dogs do when they find a cache.

The Man in the silver shades hesitates for a second or two, and looks at Swim. "Go on through," says the Man, and swim drives off.

[enquirewithin]

Sounds lucky, but not all sniffer dogs are looking for weed. Some even look for money! They don't bark or scratch. They 'react'-- stick their noses into the offending area!

[Creeping Death]

True. Sniffer dogs arent all-purpose drug finders. They need to be specially trained for whatever it is they're looking for.

Since it was in an air tight seal, inside of the trunk, and the car itself was outside, a weed dog maybe wouldnt have spotted it anyway. If they searched you though, you would have been in trouble.

[Sickman]

Oh yeah, if swim was searched no doubt swim would have been in trouble.

Swim is pretty sure this dog was trained to search for marijuana. A lot of mexican brick schwag comes into the U.S. via Texas. But swim did not have 100 pounds of schwag, only a couple grams of KB.

[IHrtHalucingens]

In Swims experience german shepards are instinctually aggrivated by weed. He has 2 friends with german shepards with no training at all, but anytime someSWIM walks into the house the dogs go straight to the pocket that the marijuana is in. Its usually just in a baggy though, and often just a sandwich bag not even a zip-lock. Does anyone know if theres a reason that these dogs will bite and bark and go all around nuts when someone brings weed into their house?

[Creeping Death]

Originally Posted by IHrtHalucingens

In Swims experience german shepards are instinctually aggrivated by weed. He has 2 friends with german shepards with no training at all, but anytime someSWIM walks into the house the dogs go straight to the pocket that the marijuana is in. Its usually just in a baggy though, and often just a sandwich bag not even a zip-lock. Does anyone know if theres a reason that these dogs will bite and bark and go all around nuts when someone brings weed into their house?

Dogs can sense your mood i think. So if you walk into their house paranoid about weed, the dog will "sense" that you're up to something.

[old hippie 56]

Swim knows which checkpoint you are talking about, them bastards tore my truck up, spent eight hours for nothing. They said they had reliable info that I was hauling dope. Had much explaining to do with my boss, nowdays I try to stay away from the border.

[Sickman]

Originally Posted by old hippie 56

Swim knows which checkpoint you are talking about, them bastards tore my truck up, spent eight hours for nothing. They said they had reliable info that I was hauling dope. Had much explaining to do with my boss, nowdays I try to stay away from the border.

Huh. Did they rip the truck apart anyway even after the dog didn't find anything, or were there no dogs?

[IHrtHalucingens]

Hmm SWIMs werent really paranoid about the weed, at least not until after a few incidents where the dog bit their pockets and stole/ate their weed once. Then they were much more careful and probably paranoid. But maybe the dog knew they were up to something they werent supposed to do, i dont know it was just interesting to me.

[old hippie 56]

Yeah, there was dogs. They said it had a hit in the cab. What else could I do, but let them search. One of the reasons I don't trust cops or their damn dogs.

[Benga]

Here's another story that some people tell around here : a young foolish swim that I hear of drove to Maastricht from Paris with 2 friends maybe 10 years ago. 4/5hours drive, on a week night, object being to buy some weed and smoke in a different environment. Left around 4pm, got to Maastricht, headed for the coffeeshop after a frit-special, hum...Swim didn't really smoke that night being the only driver of the car, but they bought a good pack of skunk, whart sort, forgot, but good stuff, not that much maybe 30g. Coffee man was nice and triple wrapped it, then duct-taped it, and even went as far as spraying a little perfume on it... The fiendish youth then procedeed to park in a darkplace, and unscrewed an airvent in the old VW polo and stuck the packet there, rescrewed, dirtied the screws then proceeded to head home around midnight.
One of these young fools had a diplomatic passport which he wanted to test out, and normally one cannot be searched with such a passport ( father and ambassador), and had brought maybe 1gm of african weed from paris to test it.
The driver wasn't high and was sipping of caffeine supplements called guronsan.
Dutch- Belgian border crossed. Then...The trio reaches Maubeuge in Belgium. Highway is diverted onto a stopping area, older people given an alcohol test, younger ones, searched for drugs with a healthy german shepperd.
the custom man comes up, in french : do you have drugs in the car ? - no we don't ?
are you sure ? you better tell me if you do...
-no we don't ?
In comes the german shepperd. The three swims are mortified, sure 30gms of skunk is not a lot of weed but still enough to end up wasting a lot of time and what not ( this was around 1996)
German sheperd goes crazy and rushes to the back seat where it gnaws away at the driver's jacket, which had previously carried the 30gm pack of skunk...
Ahha ! says the customs man...
the 3 guys are taken to a little booth, frisked, and told to empty their pockets...Nothing. Apart from the guy with the diplomatic passport. "I have a diplomatic passport" says he...
aaah, answer the belgium customs guy, were are customs, we don't have anything to do with diplomats...Sheepishly, the diplomat's kid hands out the 1gm of parisian african weed...
Customs men frown....Take a deep voice. Now now why do you go give money to the dealers of death now ("marchands de mort")
oh yes, we're sorry, we won't do it again.
names are taken, and the 3 are sent on there way, 2am on a week night, reaching the north of Paris a couple of hours later.
The dog didn't smell the 30gms of smelly skunk, but went wild on the jacket that had carried the pack....
now these 3 young fools / drug tourists were lucky, both because of the situation and because these customs people ere probably not as thourough as their american counterparts would be.
driver guy was allowed a nice relaxing joint of the skunk as the appartement door closed behing them at 4am...
nightnight
b