Legally, what are customs officers required to do with items they confiscate at customs? For their own use?

Question

A customs officer confiscated a bottle of wine at the airport. The bottle was sealed and in carry on luggage going on a domestic flight. The customs officer gleefully took it and then chuckled with the other officers about a "bonus" he had received. His reason to remove my bottle of wine was that I "might be a terrorist".

The litre wine bottle was sealed. The officer said that had it been a "smaller" bottle that it would have passed so I am confused here...Is it the contents or is it the size. He was vague and unresponsive when I inquired. When I saw that he was making joking remarks about the bottle of wine going home with him, I requested it back and said I would give it to someone of my choice. Then I went outside of the security area and gave it to a non-traveller who looked deserving of a fine bottle of wine.

The trip was within the same country. From Winnipeg Manitoba to Toronto Ontario.

Answer 1

Hey, so far you got no useful answers. You clearly stated you were travelling within Canada from Winnipeg to Toronto and yet you got a slew of American answers. . I really don't know why your bottle was confiscated. In the past I have travelled with sealed bottles in my carry-on luggage.Was it recently when no liquids were allowed in carry ons?. If I were you I would call Canada Customs, give the flight dates and ask what the rule is in general.

Answer 2

Two questions; 1: was this internal U.S. airport security or were you entering the U.S. with the bottle? Customs doesn't much care what you take out of the U.S. , but airport security won't let you carry more than a few ounces of any liquid aboard.
2: Were you entering the U.S. or another country? In the U.S., you can bring in a lot of alcohol through customs depending on where you were, a'la cruise ship passengers. Entering other countries, such as Costa Rica which is really a third world country pretending to be civilized, many police are openly on the take, and you have n-o recourse to their actions. In the U.S. there would be a procedure to which you'd have access for anything confiscated etc.
I think you were going on a local flight, and sorry, no bottles of fun stuff allowed.

Answer 3

Common sense will tell you that all the good confiscated items collected not just by Customs, but by all "law enforcement" agencies , goes to those very perople who does the confiscating. Is anyone really gullable enough to believe all the good stuff, including firearms, sharp instruments, etc. are really destroyed?

Answer 4

unfortunately, in the us you aren't allowed to carry more than 3 oz of liquid on a plane. So they were allowed to confiscate it, which sucks. Once confiscated the items go to an auction place in new hampshire, i believe (it's somewhere very random). However, the officers can take it for themselves. It really stinks, but if it was rightly confiscated it's no longer yours.

Answer 5

whoa! well that sucks. i have never heard of them doing that if it was sealed. i do know we sent my sister with a bottle of alcohol on a plane and it was opened. the customs agent made her take a swig of it. then they gave it back to her and sent her on her way (funny part was, she was under 21!) i'd call the airport and talk to customer service about what is legal to carry on as opposed to what is legal to send to the luggage area. did you take the customs officer's name and badge number? cuz i would have reported them and anyone else that was around.

Answer 6

I think you ran into a bad apple. Why were you going through Customs anyway?

Answer 7

By the sound of it , he pretty much told you what he was going to do with it..Whether legal or not!!