Ingenious Ploys To Out Wit Customs.

nlaruccia

nlaruccia

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While having dinner with a friend, he told me this story that was too unbelievable to be real, but he swore it's true. A friend of his was planning a vacation to the States and wanted to buy a new Cannondale bicycle, but was afraid of being charged 35% tax upon entering Ezeiza. She found some crappy bike and put it inside a Cannondale box and checked it with her luggage. In customs she declared that she was taking a brand new Cannondale model____. She ditched the box and old bike when she got to the States and bought the Cannondale bike that she had declared and when she returned to Argentina customs said nothing when she showed her declaration form. She was lucky that they didn't open the Cannondale box when leaving Argentina. Genius on her part.
 
Expat or Argentine? Tons of people travel with bikes to Argentina just like they do with skis, golf clubs, tenis rackets etc. It's a fairly common tourist item, not exactly a brand new flat screen TV.

Far from genius, I think your friend payed for oversized baggage on her outgoing international flight al pedo.
 
For some reason this story reminded me of this joke.

Juan comes up to the Mexican border on his bicycle. He has two large bags over his shoulders. The guard stops him and says, "What's in the bags?"
"Sand," answered Juan.
The guard says, "We'll just see about that. Get off the bike." The guard takes the bags and rips them apart; he empties them out and finds nothing in them but sand. He detains Juan overnight and has the sand analyzed, only to discover that there is nothing but pure sand in the bags The guard releases Juan, puts the sand into new bags, hefts them onto the man's shoulders, and lets him cross the border.
A week later, the same thing happens. The guard asks, "What have you got?"
"Sand," says Juan.
The guard does his thorough examination and discovers that the bags contain nothing but sand. He gives the sand back to Juan, and Juan crosses the border on his bicycle.
This sequence of events if repeated every day for three years. Finally, Juan doesn't show up one day and the guard meets him in a Cantina in Mexico.
"Hey, Buddy," says the guard, "I know you are smuggling something. It's driving me crazy. It's all I think about..... I can't sleep. Just between you and me, what are you smuggling?"
Juan sips his beer and says, "Bicycles."
 
This is actually really common amongst cyclists here, we were thinking to do it but traveling on my own with a toddler and multiple stops makes the whole idea of additional extra cargo unthinkable!
 
PhilipDT said:
Expat or Argentine? Tons of people travel with bikes to Argentina just like they do with skis, golf clubs, tenis rackets etc. It's a fairly common tourist item, not exactly a brand new flat screen TV.

Far from genius, I think your friend payed for oversized baggage on her outgoing international flight al pedo.
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She's Argentine. She got a tourist visa to the US and wanted to buy a new Cannondale. It only cost around $80 US for extra luggage. Far less than 35% on taxes of a bicycle that's worth thousands.
 
That's a common trick (below was a thread with Lee -who is now in Colombia?-).
I knew a French artist who would use this trick when sending paintings abroad for an exhibition

frenchie said:
One possible "trick" (quite imaginative... I guess the viveza criolla starts to hit me) would be that your partner, if he has to exit Argentina before you leave the country, reenters Argentina with 100 canvases rolled in a big tube (he could paint those very quickly, just to say "hey! it's Art!". Obviously, you should buy very very cheap canvases in this case since you would leave those here) and get some kind of temporary import document for the 100 paintings. THEN, the day you leave the country, you exit with the real paintings painted by your partner using the temporary import document.

I don't know if my trick is feasible, but in your case, you are not defrauding the Argentinean government or smuggling, you are just trying to take out the paintings painted by your partner (no profit associated to that).


I'll keep thinking about your issue. My "trick" might be a viable solution (not sure I should post that on a public forum though... Anyway your intent is not to steal anything so that's ok I guess).
Click to expand...
 
nlaruccia said:
I'm not sure, but she told customs in Ezieza that she was traveling to the States with a brand new bicycle.
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I believe this story only if the lady had an impressive cleavage and mini. A lenient customs officer that didn't look inside the box and checked the make and condition of the bicycle ?? or checked the frame for drugs ?

Watch out for $$$$ bikes in Palermo , biker shot in the head to steal the bike . Lacrozze and Libertador

http://www.infobae.c...a-av-libertador
 
Rich One said:
I believe this story only if the lady had an impressive cleavage and mini. A lenient customs officer that didn't look inside the box and checked the make and condition of the bicycle ?? or checked the frame for drugs ?
Click to expand...

In May I walked through the full body xray scanner in Houston Airport after clearing US customs and the TSA officer tells me, "You're going to need to give me that swiss army knife in your pocket". While I made my seemingly 10000th swiss army knife donation to the TSA I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. Heaven forbid you take an ipad out of EZE but who cares what you take on the plane itself.
 
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