{"id":19134,"date":"2013-02-23T09:15:44","date_gmt":"2013-02-23T14:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=19134"},"modified":"2013-02-23T09:15:44","modified_gmt":"2013-02-23T14:15:44","slug":"the-dhs-paperwork-error-that-resulted-in-a-boat-being-seized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2013\/02\/23\/the-dhs-paperwork-error-that-resulted-in-a-boat-being-seized\/","title":{"rendered":"The DHS paperwork error that resulted in a boat being seized"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are few things more frustrating to deal with than officious bureaucrats with a rule book (and a gun). Here’s an example of how “the rules” matter more than common sense or rationality<\/a>:<\/p>\n

DHS takes documents supplied by the builder and creates a government form that includes basic information about the boat, including the price.<\/p>\n

The primary form, prepared by the government, had an error. The price was copied from the invoice, but DHS changed the currency from Canadian to U.S. dollars.<\/p>\n

It has language at the bottom with serious sounding statements that the information is true and correct, and a signature block.<\/p>\n

I pointed out the error and suggested that we simply change the currency from US $ to CAD $ so that is was correct. Or instead, amend the amount so that it was correct in U.S. dollars.<\/p>\n

I thought this was important because I was signing it and swearing that the information, and specifically the price, was correct.<\/p>\n

The DHS agent didn\u2019t care about the error and told me to sign the form anyway. \u201cIt\u2019s just paperwork, it doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d she said. I declined.<\/p>\n

She called another agent and said simply \u201cHe won\u2019t sign the form.\u201d I asked to speak to that agent to give them a more complete picture of the situation. She wouldn\u2019t allow that.<\/p>\n

Then she seized the boat. As in, demanded that we get off the boat, demanded the keys and took physical control of it.<\/p>\n

What struck me the most about the situation is how excited she got about seizing the boat. Like she was just itching for something like this to happen. This was a very happy day for her.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are few things more frustrating to deal with than officious bureaucrats with a rule book (and a gun). Here’s an example of how “the rules” matter more than common sense or rationality: DHS takes documents supplied by the builder and creates a government form that includes basic information about the boat, including the price. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6,84,13],"tags":[52,316,661,61,118],"class_list":["post-19134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bureaucracy","category-cancon","category-government","category-usa","tag-absurd","tag-borders","tag-regulation","tag-ships","tag-taxes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-4YC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19135,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19134\/revisions\/19135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}