Fruit and California border??

Went through. No one at the booth to ask. Could have had a few ton.

Came through the Winterhaven check point today and got asked about citrus and live plants.No big deal.

They're not going to fine you. They will take them from you. Enjoy those oranges in Arizona.

Brings back memories of years ago, 1972 to be exact. I was stopped at an agricultural checkpoint somewhere in the West, don't remember the state. May have been Arizona, not sure but know it wasn't California.

They were checking for certain live plants. Asked me to open the trunk of my car. Sure, I had nothing to hide. But the trunk was half full of weapons, several shotguns, four center fire rifles and two rimfire rifles. Well the Ag agents never said a word or asked any questions. All they were looking for were live plants of some kind. They thanked me and sent me on my way.

Wondering what would happen in this day and age? Get surrounded by a swat team? :E

Times have changed, unfortunately not for the good. :(

Oh, I happened to be moving and was carrying my firearms with me at the time.

darsben1 wrote:
They will take it as they should. The threat to citrus industry is very real with the Med fruit fly and the Asian citrus psyllid and Huanglongbing.
Sort of sad you would even think of trying.

I have crossed from AZ to CA so many times I have lost count and they have never taken any of my fruit. Most times they never even ask. I don't believe it is my duty to prescreen everything I put in my vehicle or TT for whatever destination I am headed to. If CA, or any other state for that matter, wants to ban the importation of particular foodstuffs I am certainly willing to cooperate. However, as I have heard on this thread and others, no one is entering my TT to search for anything without legal standing.
RichH

korbe wrote:

DutchmenSport wrote:

ivbinconned wrote:
Kansas what do you mean "risk". The most that can happen is they take it away from you right?

And fine you.

My thought is that Kansas was describing the "risk" of transporting infested fruits and vegetables that could harm our crops as being not worth it.

And never heard of getting fined unless something was illegal. I didn't know it was a crime taking fruits and vegies across the border - generally speaking.

X2. From my understanding the fines are only if you are trying to illegally import fruits and vegetables. As long as you claim the oranges at the border, and you are only carrying a reasonable* number of oranges, the worst they'll do is confiscate and destroy them.

*By "reasonable" I mean an amount that would be reasonable for a person to eat before they go bad. If they're are two of you and you're bringing in 100 oranges, that's not really reasonable. If you're bringing in 10, that's reasonable.

DutchmenSport wrote:

ivbinconned wrote:
Kansas what do you mean "risk". The most that can happen is they take it away from you right?

And fine you.

Only if you have lied to them. Last time across. O question asked just waved on through. Time before they asked about firewood. A few yrs ago I had grapefruit and just juiced them before leaving.

We cross a few times at Winterhaven, generally we get waved through without the RV but stopped if we are hauling it. They generally ask where we are coming from, what we have and they are generally interested in Citrus. With the low prices here in California and the freshness, we wait to get our stuff here

Last week on I 8 just crossed into CA west of Yuma, ready to stop at the checkpoint but the agent just waved us ahead - didn't even have to come to complete stop.

DutchmenSport wrote:

ivbinconned wrote:
Kansas what do you mean "risk". The most that can happen is they take it away from you right?

And fine you.

My thought is that Kansas was describing the "risk" of transporting infested fruits and vegetables that could harm our crops as being not worth it.

And never heard of getting fined unless something was illegal. I didn't know it was a crime taking fruits and vegies across the border - generally speaking.