[Mike 700]

 

Arrived at Poole, from Guernsey, after 4 and a bit hours of the Condor Liberation running on one engine, and hitting every ‘pothole ‘ in the ‘ road’ up from the Islands, with everything on the tables travelling in different directions, the Wife , Granddaughter and I were ‘pulled over’ by the Border Control Guys.

Is this your car sir and another 20 questions, all politely and respectfully asked, and passports taken away!

After I enquired as to ‘what’s up doc’ they informed me that on passing thru the sensors coming off the boat, they ‘pinged’ me for carrying ‘radioactive material’ potentially enough to make a bomb?

They then checked the whole car with ( I assume) Geiger counters , and half an hour later they asked me to follow their vehicle back to the boat, and then reverse up the ramp and drive through the sensors again, which I was happy to do of course!

Result ‘ no pings ‘ , so followed the Border Patrol vehicle back to their building and sit in the car for over half an hour, being watched by three armed police officers who had subsequently arrived.

Eventually, very politely our passports were returned, with the all clear, and the police went back to their base, and the security people were instructed to let us through.

Nearly two hours had gone by since we docked.

Apparently, if you are carrying certain medication or on chemo, or the sun has been shining on certain cars, you can get pinged by the highly sensitive scanners- the wife was a bit p’d off and the granddaughter was a bit frightened by the whole thing, but we all agreed ‘better sure than sorry’.

Topic

[Wigwam]

You were most unfortunate allround Mike. Not sure I would have had your patience.  Most times I’ve landed in Poole there’s been no Customs or Immigration staff to be seen.

[joss]

Oh the joys of travel eh Mike. It’s good to know that out guys are doing a good on our boarders, what ever the inconvenience.

Joss
Current car: BMW X2 sDrive 20i M Sport 5dr Step Auto In metallic Portimão Blue. 04:10:2025
Previous car:Peugeot 308 GT Premium 1.2 Pure tech Petrol.

[Mike 700]

Guys,

It was a bit of serious business actually, and thinking back, I was at the departure point quite early really, as instructed by email from Condor, but boarded quite late and was purposely positioned at the very rear of the car deck, with loads of room to open all of the doors, boot etc, and was parked right next to the port disabled person’s lift.

Anyway, after we had argued with everyone for a while about the 3 guys who had pinched our allocated seating right at the front of the lounge ( not their fault as the employee on the door who took a look at everyone ‘s entry ticket, ignored the allocated numbers and just told everyone that they could sit anywhere) there came an announcement ‘could the driver of a white VW Tiguan Reg no xyz, please come back to the car deck as a matter of urgency?

I’m sat down at last, and to get to the car deck, with a walker and, by now, “ a bad attitude” from the messing about with the seating, I really wasn’t going to fight my way through The Madding Crowd, so the wife took the keys and off she sashayed muttering something about a Condor being bigger than a turkey and would not fit the oven”.

When she eventually arrived, they wanted her to move the car so that they could board some late arrivals, but she can’t drive, so the officer of the deck moved it and eventually handed the keys back to her, joking that he didn’t want to hand them back – he wanted to keep the car ( VW Tiguan SEL )

Clearly the sensors on the ramp as you disembark, were too sensitive in this case, but it makes one think how easy it would have been for the guy to place something in the vehicle???

[Author]

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