It was my turn to drive, we were heading back into Cali, I greeted him and he greeted back and asked where we were coming from. I told him we were coming back from a family reunion in Texas. He asked how many were aboard, I told him 6. He then asked, "Do you mind if we come on board?" I gave him a most irritated look and said "Why?" He said, we need to check for vegetation coming from other states. I told him I had fruit left over from the trip but that I had bought it in Cali. He asked if it had stickers on it and I said yes. He then asked if he could see a piece, so Mark went and got one and I handed it to him through the window. He saw the sticker from Washington State and said, "It's from Washington, very good, welcome back". He smiled, handed the fruit back and we went on our way.
All the while the dogs were sniffing around the RV.
Mark and I had discussed in advance how we would handle ourselves if we were forced to the side for an inspection. We decided if push came to shove, we would let them on after trying these tactics first:
1. If they claim their dogs smelled something, we would accuse them of lying, and/or accuse their dog of incompetence, and threaten the agents personally with law suits if they continued with the search and found nothing.
2. We would assert our 4th amendment rights and if they used the patriot act we would argue that the patriot act violated the Constitution and if they pursued the search we would sue, and call our Congressman.
Granted, none of those tactics would probably work but obviously they knew they couldn't come on board without probable cause, because they backed off when I demanded to know why.
I guess the most important thing to do is to ask why they want to search.
