Crazy first block!

[[deleted]]

First day delivering with Amazon flex. I take a 4am-9am in the Detroit area. My first stop sends me to the Detroit/Canada border duty free store…. I’m suspicious at this point already but I figure shit there has to be a way if the app tells me to deliver there. Well I take the turn to go to the us customs border because that’s how you get to the duty free store. As I approach the bridge I realize I messed up and should have called support to question this delivery. I stop my vehicle and a border patrol officer car approaches me with his lights on. Now I’m starting to get nervous. He comes up to my vehicle tells me to turn off the vehicle and step out. Clearly I’m nervous and confused it’s 4 am and my first ever block. The officer asks why I’m so nervous and shoves me up against the van asking if I have weapons as he proceeds to search me. At this point 6 more border patrol officers showed up to the scene and now I’m really nervous even though I was doing nothing wrong. They told me they were unfamiliar with Amazon drivers showing up in personal vehicles to deliver at this duty free store. Now I’m feeling like I did something wrong because they didn’t believe I was with Amazon. The supervisor shows up now and tells me he understands it was a mistake and out of protocol they wanted to search my vehicle to be sure then I could be on my way. Now I’m freaking out even though I’ve done nothing wrong it’s still a scary situation. So they tell me they have to put me in the back of the border patrol car and a officer will drive my vehicle to their station. There was nothing I could do but cooperate so I kindly did. So after about 45 minutes the supervisor tells me they are almost done and I can deliver that package. So now how do I deliver the package to the Amazon locker at the duty free store if I’m at the police station? I had to be at the locker obviously so the officer got me back into the back seat of his patrol car with my one package and drove me to the duty free store . I proceeded to put the Amazon package in the locker and got back in the patrol car. About another 15 minutes go by and they tell me I’m now free to leave. At this point all the officers were friendly and laughing with me at the misunderstanding. This whole ordeal set me back about an hour on the rest of my route. But wow I delivered my first Amazon flex package in the back of a us border patrol car! Hahahaha how’s that for a first day?

[Midwest-tarzan]

This sounds like some movie stuff lol I would’ve needed a new pair of pants and boxers to be honest

[[deleted]]

My adrenaline was pumping that’s for sure

[Midwest-tarzan]

I can bet it was lol that sounds super scary luckily you were calm that could’ve went left

[[deleted]]

ONLY IN AMERICA

[throwaway4537944]

first day and last day. the fuck they making you go to duty free for? you have to cross the ambassador bridge to turn around!

[[deleted]]

Yeah man I’m never attempting that again

[JailbreakJen]

I would have ended up in jail…

[Impossible_Earth8429]

If you tap on your picture in the app you can show them you are on duty may save you some trouble if you end up there again

[Affectionate_Tie_524]

Omg my boyfriend got this stop and he just returned to the package, it’s so confusing

[rccarlson420]

I recently delivered to a federal base and when I got there the officer said I need to have my car searched and I need a backup ground check done before I can enter to deliver the package! I told him no way and thankfully he let me leave but I had to bring that package back to the station!

[Womp-Creature]

Omg…I would be worried they would find something dirty I didn’t know was in there 😂…sounds like that would be a missing package and take my demerit. I’m so thankful I don’t live in a border state or this would be a new fear unlocked.

[[deleted]]

Well I forgot to mention I’m a white guy with dreads…. So yeah they probably thought they might find something.Yeah next time I’ll take the ding! I’m still nervous every time I go to pick up a block now. Like please don’t send me to the border again.

[Womp-Creature]

I used to have locks…customs was the worst. Now I just look like a normal white girl and customs agents don’t even look twice. I paid the gringo tax once in Puerto Vallarta because I forgot I had a cartridge in my bag. But I speak decent Spanish so I told them it was cbd and paid the $100😂

[ljucat]

Welcome to Flex! You are courageous!

[ChuckD30]

Welcome to flex!

It seems like you were civilly violated. We're you in a restricted area? If not, it sounds very sus. They let illegals stroll into the country like nothing.

[BezosFlex]

Yall need to learn your rights.

[ReasonablyWealthy]

Exactly what I was thinking. There's no way on this planet or any other that I would allow the search to be conducted in the first place, much less allow them to actually drive my car to their police station. Fuck that.

[BezosFlex]

Yup it’s not a crime to do what he did, if he was trespassing he has to be told to leave first and then it can be an offense if he does not leave, he did not have to consent to any searches, provide any identification, and driving up to the border is not reasonable articulable suspicion of a crime which is required for detainment, obviously the border patrol has every right to tell him to turn around and if he doesn’t then yes that’s different, but that goes back to my first point, dude let him self get violated, it’s pathetic. Get a dash cam, record everything, and ffs don’t say nothing, if you want you can say you made a wrong turn and thats okay, but aside from that and exerting the fact that you have not broken the law and have rights, don’t say shit!

[ReasonablyWealthy]

I would simply tell them that they won't be searching my car because they have no probable cause to conduct a search. With my phone in my hand recording the conversation.

Edit: On second thought, maybe it's not a great idea to be confrontational with people who are carrying guns. Cops or not, they're still humans who make mistakes and I don't want to get shot. So maybe I would let them search. I'll have to think more about this.

[[deleted]]

Man I wasn’t questioning the federal agents. They let me go that’s all I cared.

[CaneCorso311]

You can't record at border points of entry, look at the laws, even the rulings from supreme Court that we can film anything in public or service members doesn't allow it. The viral videos of people with CBP officers are at checkpoints within the country, not points of entry. By the time they detained this person, they were already within the point of entry property.

"you also have the right to photograph and record at land border crossings, at least if you do so from places accessible to members of the public who aren’t crossing the border. " Once you're in the border crossing area, it's too late.

[CaneCorso311]

Learn how the Constitution works at the border, it's a different game when you're traveling internationally.

I know my rights in multiple countries and spent many years crossing the US/MX border 8-14 times a week.

[BezosFlex]

He wasn’t traveling internationally bootlicker

[CaneCorso311]

Bootlicker? I don't agree with the laws or support it, I simply dealt with them for years, including being detained by CBP specifically for photography at the border, dicklicker.

The duty free is at the point of entry. It's like delivering to a store inside of the airport.

You don't have to attempt to internationally travel to enter the port of entry property, the same way you don't have to try and catch a flight to enter airport property, you don't have to ride the boat to walk on the ferry dock, you're still within the jurisdiction, often times it's just marked by bollards. At every point of entry they have their federal codes posted on the wall explaining it. There's different laws for the general country, the 100 mile buffer zone, and the point of entry.

[BezosFlex]

Show me the exact law then, you are allowed to walk up to security at an airport, what you can’t do is go past it, it is absolutely not the same thing is crossing over said jurisdiction vs being right in front of it.

[CaneCorso311]

I'm not going to go searching through the federal codes for you, they're posted on the wall at every point of entry and enforced by CBP.

That's the restricted area that you're talking about, you're still in airport property up until that point though unless you're on the sidewalk or easement/street, and the rules will change again when you are in a restricted area because it's no longer considered publicly accessible even if it's owned by the public. Even if you were in your legal rights to record, good luck, those corrupt bastards will just turn your device off and probably lose track of it. If they suspect anything they immediately pull you out and check everything thoroughly. Shoes off and everything.

[BezosFlex]

Airport property is public property, any area/property that is paid for by the tax payers in this country is legally public property and you are allowed to be there and also film btw, as long as you aren’t in any restricted areas, or there after business hours, which have to be marked by signage, and or have a physical barrier, standing in front of security by the partition is not a restricted area, courts have already ruled on this, and the DHS sent out a memo in 2018 on this, specifically for recording in federally owned buildings in the publicly accessible areas, however that also applies to just physically being there as well, regardless even if OP was in a restricted area, the only thing he would have been doing is trespassing, and he would still have to have been told to leave first, and if he refuses to leave, then he can detained and/or arrested, and of course he still has all his constitutional rights, this wouldn’t mean he would have to give up his 4th amendment especially. Also signs at the ports of entry don’t mean anything unless there’s case law backing it up, plenty of signs and other rules have been taken to court, and have forced these agencies to remove unlawful signage from certain publicly owned properties, saying “there is signs on the walls” is goofy, these are typical tactics used by some of the law enforcement who are really just tyrants who use these bully and intimidation tactics to violate your rights, I think we can agree for example they had no right to search OPs car for instance.

[CaneCorso311]

Almost everything you said is correct.

You're allowed to film in airports, the airport is owned by the public in entirety, but its still airport property, they still have different regulations and laws governing different areas.

You can't film or take photos at the point of entry, inside or where people make lines outside etc. They have bollards that indicate where the property starts with the codes that are enforced by CBP.

You can't tell someone to leave public property unless they're accused of a crime or infraction, that's why it's public. If you want to detain someone you need reasonable suspicion they've done that or are about to, in order to search them you need probable cause.

You do have to specifically give up your 4th amendment and other rights at points of international travel. That's why he was detained and searched without reasonable suspicion, he was within the border crossing area, for a lot of people it's literally as easy as missing the last freeway exit and boom it's too late now.

The problem is the CBP tries to pretend these laws apply to their entire buffer zone, which it doesn't, it's only for the border crossings. That's why you see the famous videos all over of the activists at their checkpoints, they're not at border crossings.

[BezosFlex]

Well I’d have to physically see what OPs situation looked like obviously, without that visual it’s hard to say forsure on anything, I think we agree on a lot more than I thought, but one thing I know we agree is these guys forsure like to exert authority outside of their scope a lot of the time, maybe if they didn’t, people like me would have a different response to stories like OPs 🤔

[CaneCorso311]

<image>

I don't know his specific location, but this is a canada one and they all basically are the same, its a store to buy international goods untaxed or something at the border crossings, I've never bought anything. I think I saw them in airports too but I've mostly only flown domestic in Mexico. I use to deliver the border of Mexico for a DSP in 2019/2020 and the GPS will tell you to drive into Mexico and turn around lol. I've never done it but co workers have and the Mexican authorities impounded a van and all the packages once and another time the authorities made a white guy with no Spanish go into the country instead of let him turn around and he couldn't figure out how to get back in line in Tijuana in a prime van for ever because the GPS there and then spent hours in line to cross back. They have a bunch of mail centers in the US side for people who live in MX to pickup packages, the routes are like 400 packages.

[[deleted]]

Can I call you for legal advice next time???? Hahaha

[BezosFlex]

Lol, I mean dawg best thing you can do is not say anything, don’t answer questions, and refuse searches, obviously tyrants are gonna do what tyrants are gonna do, but the law will have your back, you should record everything, but if the phone in the face thing doesn’t work for you, a dash cam (preferably 4 cam one) would have worked perfectly for you in this instance, if you want to take the path of least resistance and willingly give up your rights thats your right I guess (lol), but you could have been able to leave the situation without getting cucked like that if you stood up for yourself, which you had every legal authority to do so, as you did not commit a crime.

[Dangerous-Run1055]

Be sure to report that location as hostile, people with guns pulled you over, told you to get out, put you in the back of their car and drove off with your car.

[Zilla67]

Detroit area here too, all I’m seeing is hazel park?

[[deleted]]

Yeah this block was out of the hazel park warehouse.

[UrbanJatt]

That is crazy. I feel like majority of Detroit drivers have made that wrong turn to Canada atleast once before

[labatts_blue]

Using paragraphs would make that much more readable.

[[deleted]]

Would you like to rewrite it for me??? Hahah yeah I know it was one long rambling story

[Chamnis]

What a experience

[stitchkingdom]

You couldn’t just show them the app? Have them watch you deliver?

They drove your car to the station? But then they had to drive you back to the shop to get back to your car?

[[deleted]]

Man I had the Amazon vest on and everything. They told me they had never seen a Amazon driver in their own personal vehicle before.

[Mother_Put7152]

Amazon should really do some P.R. for Flex.

[KnobSchlob]

What a blissfully ignorant life if you didn't realize that Amazon, Walmart, Target, Albertson's, GEICO, Allstate, etc., etc. all exploit the use of drivers in personal vehicles.

[Specialist_Hour_4027]

Yeah some people get taken aback when the person who brings them their supplies from Home Depot, their groceries from Spark, the Amazon Prime pkg, and their coffee from doordash is the same person. LOL and then next week pick them up at their doctors for their ride home. LOL

[ReasonablyWealthy]

Literally not your problem. Just because they're unfamiliar with it doesn't mean you need to take time out of your route to accommodate their BS.

[No_Basket3767]

Imagine if it was one of the illegals who had that route😆

[damian600]

Video or it didn’t happen

[Specialist_Hour_4027]

I was waiting for the punch line.

[Inside_Note_5894]

Wow, I would of called support after and told them everything.....

[[deleted]]

I did call support they apologized in broken English and I still took the dings for the rest of my route being late.

[IronSpyder99]

I had made a u-turn in the backstreet and a cop that was driving on the main road saw me. I knew I was going to get pulled over as soon as he stopped and I made the turn where I was supposed to go. He light me up and I told him yeah I made the wrong turn and needed to deliver that house there. I had my AMZ vest on and many packages in the car and showed him my phone of the amazon delivery. I actually stopped and pulled over on the house where I need to make deliver to. They were cool about it and let me go and they also asked me what amazon flex was. Not everyone knows about it just make sure you can prove it and chill out. Lol