- Joined
- Jun 23, 2010
- Messages
- 18,183
- Name
- Haole
This story is true and fucked up. I'm going to go ahead and share it for it's pure entertainment value and for the possibility that it might help someone avoid having something similar happen. Plus, some have been asking so...
Let me first make something very clear... This was all my fault. Despite whatever set-up or other circumstances that may have been a big part of this,,, I should have never allowed myself to be so trusting and vulnerable.
Back on August 2nd my wife, 3 sons, my wife's friend and I all traveled in our boat across the Atlantic about 140 miles to what we have come to call our 2nd home. A tiny island in the Bahamas (Grand Cay). The crossing wasn't the most pleasant as hurricane Bertha was coming up from the southern Caribbean. We made it with no real problems,,, it was totally safe, just a little bumpy seas and I had to navigate around some thunderstorms. We arrived about an hour later than normal because of the conditions... but all was well and we proceeded to have about 7 days of extremely good diving, fishing, food, etc.
But at about 6:30pm on Friday August 8th, everything changed. My long time fishing guide (I've used him for the last 10 yrs) was driving us back to the marina after another monster day of diving / fishing. I have him captain my boat when I'm over there so that I can really relax (drink). Strangely,,, he purposely pulled our boat out in front of 3 other boats who were already waiting to enter the marina area. Once he wheeled into the marina, I was very surprised to see a Fisheries officer standing at the end of our slip as if she was expecting us. My surprise was due to the fact that I have never seen a Fisheries officer at the docks asking to see your catch in the 20yrs that I have been going there. I wasn't concerned at that moment though.
Another reason I have a Bahamian "guide" us over there is because having a B.O.B. (Bahamian On Board) allows you to harvest more than the limit of whatever you are catching... Anything over the limit simply has to be claimed by the B.O.B. if you are ever checked. Well,,, when we gladly showed our catch to the officer, our supposed friend and guide of over 10yrs claims he doesn't know anything about it. So I'm now in violation of a Fisheries law.
But it gets worse. The Fisheries officer then asks me for my immigration / customs paperwork. This is a problem because I didn't check in at customs when we first arrived. We didn't because our 3 boys had forgotten their birth certificates, and we didn't realize it until we were there. We didn't want to be told that we would have to go back and get them. There have been times over the years that folks there have told us not to waste our time with the process anyway... not to mention that we have taken a number of people from the Bahamas over to the States on our boat while bypassing customs on our end. This is a very small island,,, maybe only 150 total population. You know everyone and it has always been an "understanding" that we all took care of each other in this Dept. So I just tell the Fisheries officer that I don't have the documents (I don't try and deny anything),,, she then calls immigration and customs to get them involved. NOT GOOD.
So then, the Fisheries officer wants to see everything I have in my deep freezer in our place. I show her with no disagreement of any kind. She takes all of my catches for the week and then asks me to see what's in my freezer on top of my fridge. I show her that all I have in that are a bunch of stone crab claws that I purchased from my Bahamian fishing guide. She then tells me that they are Out Of Season and that I'm not allowed to have them... I had no clue about this.
Customs then comes and takes everything off of my boat including the keys to the engines. I'm told that they'll be holding onto everything including my boat until I resolve my violations.
Next,,, I'm told that I will be spending the night in the jail cell on Grand Cay... Imagine the smallest insect infested cell you can think of. Well, it was 10 times worse than that. I had to spend the night there,,, my family and friend were allowed to stay at our place.
The next morning, a group of 7 immigration and customs officers come to Grand Cay from Freeport in their high speed boat. They are there to collect all of us and take us to Freeport. That morning I was able to retain the services of a Bahamian Senator as my attorney. He was going to be there when we arrived in Freeport. Our high speed boat ride would have been really high speed if they hadn't had Mercury outboards (of the 4 they had on the back of the boat, only 3 would run) LOL.
Once in Freeport, we were all transported to the immigration building to be held in their jail cells. My 3 sons and I are placed in one cell together and my wife and her girl friend are put in another. The cells are directly across from each other so we can see and talk to everyone in our group. These cells were nice as jail cells go... each one had a private bathroom and shower. We spent Saturday through Monday morning locked up in these cells. No TV, phones, Wi-Fi etc... It was a time of bonding for us all LOL. My sons and I had nothing else to do but to talk to each other... I learned some very interesting things from them. I also learned that jail fucking sucks.
During the weekend my attorney brought me up to speed on all of my charges and what could possibly happen with all of them. I had Fisheries, Immigration, and Customs charges. That meant that I'd have to have 3 separate trials... hopefully all on Monday. My charges allowed for HUGE fine possibilities, but my Senator attorney made me feel as though I wouldn't have to pay near the maximums.
My father flew in from Atlanta on Saturday night (Thank God) to help in anyway he could. He was telling everybody that he was there on a Rescue Mission.
On Monday morning the authorities decided that they were not going to charge my 16yr old twins with anything so they were allowed to leave jail with my Pops. The rest of us were headed off to our 1st trial. My oldest son and I were handcuffed together and transported into the courtroom. We had on our best board shorts (bathing suits) btw. My wife and her girl friend weren't handcuffed for some reason and they "somehow" had much more acceptable clothing to wear .... hahaha.
The 1st trial (immigration) was the one that could potentially result in the largest amount of fines according to my attorney. There was a fairly large number of people in attendance. At end of this one, all charges were dropped for my wife, son, and our friend. My fines were $1000 to immigration and I also was being required to donate $1000 to the Grade / High School in Grand Cay. It could have been well over $30k in fines. RELIEF.
I was then put into a holding cell in the courthouse to wait on my next trial (Fisheries). I had to wait basically all day. This trial was supposed to be the least of my problems / worries. But instead of receiving what we expected to be the worst possible fine of $1500... I was given a fine of $9000 that had to be paid by 4:00pm or I would be forced to serve a 6 month jail sentence. It was almost 4:00 when the nightmare bitch judge made her ruling on this. Out of the "kindness" of her heart she decided that she would give me until 12 noon the next day to pay. All fines have to be paid in cash btw.
The only way to reliably get cash there is through Western Union and they close at 4pm. As a result, I was informed that I was going to be transported to the regular jail in Freeport for the night. Meanwhile the phones in the courthouse are ringing off the walls and each time all of my business is being given out to whoever wanted to know. Nothing is private.
The jail in Freeport was ROUGH. The police officer escorting me to my cell was reading my fines and results aloud as we walked down through all of the cells... so all of my fellow inmates were getting brought up to speed on my brutal crime spree. The cells were painted completely black and there was no bathroom / toilet of any kind in them. I was put in my cell and I was preparing for a wonderful blanket-free night's sleep on my concrete floor. I was in there for a couple of hours I think and then the police officer came down to inform me that my fines were paid and that I was free to go with my attorney. WOW
I was able to spend that night with my family in a local hotel. Our friend flew home earlier that day. I still had another trail (customs) to deal with in the morning. My attorney told me to expect a fine of $5000 ,,, but it could be as much as $10K and they could KEEP my boat as well. The judge was ready to give me the max penalty until he heard about how my entire family had be Locked Up for the whole weekend. He took pity on me and "only" fined me $3000 and he released my boat and belongings. I was actually pleased with the $3000 fine,,, Crazy Shit.
So now , my whole family and I are required to leave the Bahamas by boat (not mine) right away to go back to our country of origin. I'm told by my attorney that I will have to find someone to bring my boat back to the US because immigration is going to put me on the No Entry List. While we are waiting on our boat to depart, I'm forced to wait in the immigration office. They want to ensure that I am leaving the country. While I'm waiting, the Head of Immigration calls me into his office and proceeds to lecture me on how none of this was serious and a bunch of other BS... I say something like - "If none of this was such a Big Deal, why in the hell was he not allowing me to return to the Bahamas. I even asked him if he'd be willing to bring my boat back to the US since I was now needing to hire someone to do it for me. This is an angry insensitive looking individual I'm speaking with. He stares at me silently for at least 2 minutes ,,, then he tells me that he is not going to restrict me and that I'm free to come and go from the Bahamas like anyone else. I still have to leave the country right away though.
We get home and I have to charter a small prop plane to get me and a friend back to my boat. We flew over on Saturday and brought the boat back Sunday. I saw the little fucker fishing guide who set me up while I was there. I didn't speak to him, and he knew better than to speak to me. He walked away Scott Free btw,,, even though he was on the boat with all of us.
The bad economy has really hurt the Bahamas severely. It's pushed many of them to the point of desperation. What happened to me was an act of desperation... I know that now. I left myself open for something like this because of perceived friendship and a false sense of trust. Hard lesson to learn,,, plus it cost me over $30K.
My story was on the TV, radio, and all newspapers in the Bahamas. Front page news... Infamous.
They took all of my lobster, fish, conch and stone crabs btw. As a result, the tailgate menu will have to be modified for the Tampon game. I was able to buy a bunch of conch before I came back on Sunday though so the conch salad (ceviche) is still going to be served.
Because of the length of this story, I left out a bunch of insane crazy shit that happened during the whole nightmare. More than on person involved including the Head of Customs for the Bahamas thinks this should be turned into a movie. And in case anyone is wondering,,, we are all able to laugh about this now.
This has to be the longest post I've ever written.
Let me first make something very clear... This was all my fault. Despite whatever set-up or other circumstances that may have been a big part of this,,, I should have never allowed myself to be so trusting and vulnerable.
Back on August 2nd my wife, 3 sons, my wife's friend and I all traveled in our boat across the Atlantic about 140 miles to what we have come to call our 2nd home. A tiny island in the Bahamas (Grand Cay). The crossing wasn't the most pleasant as hurricane Bertha was coming up from the southern Caribbean. We made it with no real problems,,, it was totally safe, just a little bumpy seas and I had to navigate around some thunderstorms. We arrived about an hour later than normal because of the conditions... but all was well and we proceeded to have about 7 days of extremely good diving, fishing, food, etc.
But at about 6:30pm on Friday August 8th, everything changed. My long time fishing guide (I've used him for the last 10 yrs) was driving us back to the marina after another monster day of diving / fishing. I have him captain my boat when I'm over there so that I can really relax (drink). Strangely,,, he purposely pulled our boat out in front of 3 other boats who were already waiting to enter the marina area. Once he wheeled into the marina, I was very surprised to see a Fisheries officer standing at the end of our slip as if she was expecting us. My surprise was due to the fact that I have never seen a Fisheries officer at the docks asking to see your catch in the 20yrs that I have been going there. I wasn't concerned at that moment though.
Another reason I have a Bahamian "guide" us over there is because having a B.O.B. (Bahamian On Board) allows you to harvest more than the limit of whatever you are catching... Anything over the limit simply has to be claimed by the B.O.B. if you are ever checked. Well,,, when we gladly showed our catch to the officer, our supposed friend and guide of over 10yrs claims he doesn't know anything about it. So I'm now in violation of a Fisheries law.
But it gets worse. The Fisheries officer then asks me for my immigration / customs paperwork. This is a problem because I didn't check in at customs when we first arrived. We didn't because our 3 boys had forgotten their birth certificates, and we didn't realize it until we were there. We didn't want to be told that we would have to go back and get them. There have been times over the years that folks there have told us not to waste our time with the process anyway... not to mention that we have taken a number of people from the Bahamas over to the States on our boat while bypassing customs on our end. This is a very small island,,, maybe only 150 total population. You know everyone and it has always been an "understanding" that we all took care of each other in this Dept. So I just tell the Fisheries officer that I don't have the documents (I don't try and deny anything),,, she then calls immigration and customs to get them involved. NOT GOOD.
So then, the Fisheries officer wants to see everything I have in my deep freezer in our place. I show her with no disagreement of any kind. She takes all of my catches for the week and then asks me to see what's in my freezer on top of my fridge. I show her that all I have in that are a bunch of stone crab claws that I purchased from my Bahamian fishing guide. She then tells me that they are Out Of Season and that I'm not allowed to have them... I had no clue about this.
Customs then comes and takes everything off of my boat including the keys to the engines. I'm told that they'll be holding onto everything including my boat until I resolve my violations.
Next,,, I'm told that I will be spending the night in the jail cell on Grand Cay... Imagine the smallest insect infested cell you can think of. Well, it was 10 times worse than that. I had to spend the night there,,, my family and friend were allowed to stay at our place.
The next morning, a group of 7 immigration and customs officers come to Grand Cay from Freeport in their high speed boat. They are there to collect all of us and take us to Freeport. That morning I was able to retain the services of a Bahamian Senator as my attorney. He was going to be there when we arrived in Freeport. Our high speed boat ride would have been really high speed if they hadn't had Mercury outboards (of the 4 they had on the back of the boat, only 3 would run) LOL.
Once in Freeport, we were all transported to the immigration building to be held in their jail cells. My 3 sons and I are placed in one cell together and my wife and her girl friend are put in another. The cells are directly across from each other so we can see and talk to everyone in our group. These cells were nice as jail cells go... each one had a private bathroom and shower. We spent Saturday through Monday morning locked up in these cells. No TV, phones, Wi-Fi etc... It was a time of bonding for us all LOL. My sons and I had nothing else to do but to talk to each other... I learned some very interesting things from them. I also learned that jail fucking sucks.
During the weekend my attorney brought me up to speed on all of my charges and what could possibly happen with all of them. I had Fisheries, Immigration, and Customs charges. That meant that I'd have to have 3 separate trials... hopefully all on Monday. My charges allowed for HUGE fine possibilities, but my Senator attorney made me feel as though I wouldn't have to pay near the maximums.
My father flew in from Atlanta on Saturday night (Thank God) to help in anyway he could. He was telling everybody that he was there on a Rescue Mission.
On Monday morning the authorities decided that they were not going to charge my 16yr old twins with anything so they were allowed to leave jail with my Pops. The rest of us were headed off to our 1st trial. My oldest son and I were handcuffed together and transported into the courtroom. We had on our best board shorts (bathing suits) btw. My wife and her girl friend weren't handcuffed for some reason and they "somehow" had much more acceptable clothing to wear .... hahaha.
The 1st trial (immigration) was the one that could potentially result in the largest amount of fines according to my attorney. There was a fairly large number of people in attendance. At end of this one, all charges were dropped for my wife, son, and our friend. My fines were $1000 to immigration and I also was being required to donate $1000 to the Grade / High School in Grand Cay. It could have been well over $30k in fines. RELIEF.
I was then put into a holding cell in the courthouse to wait on my next trial (Fisheries). I had to wait basically all day. This trial was supposed to be the least of my problems / worries. But instead of receiving what we expected to be the worst possible fine of $1500... I was given a fine of $9000 that had to be paid by 4:00pm or I would be forced to serve a 6 month jail sentence. It was almost 4:00 when the nightmare bitch judge made her ruling on this. Out of the "kindness" of her heart she decided that she would give me until 12 noon the next day to pay. All fines have to be paid in cash btw.
The only way to reliably get cash there is through Western Union and they close at 4pm. As a result, I was informed that I was going to be transported to the regular jail in Freeport for the night. Meanwhile the phones in the courthouse are ringing off the walls and each time all of my business is being given out to whoever wanted to know. Nothing is private.
The jail in Freeport was ROUGH. The police officer escorting me to my cell was reading my fines and results aloud as we walked down through all of the cells... so all of my fellow inmates were getting brought up to speed on my brutal crime spree. The cells were painted completely black and there was no bathroom / toilet of any kind in them. I was put in my cell and I was preparing for a wonderful blanket-free night's sleep on my concrete floor. I was in there for a couple of hours I think and then the police officer came down to inform me that my fines were paid and that I was free to go with my attorney. WOW
I was able to spend that night with my family in a local hotel. Our friend flew home earlier that day. I still had another trail (customs) to deal with in the morning. My attorney told me to expect a fine of $5000 ,,, but it could be as much as $10K and they could KEEP my boat as well. The judge was ready to give me the max penalty until he heard about how my entire family had be Locked Up for the whole weekend. He took pity on me and "only" fined me $3000 and he released my boat and belongings. I was actually pleased with the $3000 fine,,, Crazy Shit.
So now , my whole family and I are required to leave the Bahamas by boat (not mine) right away to go back to our country of origin. I'm told by my attorney that I will have to find someone to bring my boat back to the US because immigration is going to put me on the No Entry List. While we are waiting on our boat to depart, I'm forced to wait in the immigration office. They want to ensure that I am leaving the country. While I'm waiting, the Head of Immigration calls me into his office and proceeds to lecture me on how none of this was serious and a bunch of other BS... I say something like - "If none of this was such a Big Deal, why in the hell was he not allowing me to return to the Bahamas. I even asked him if he'd be willing to bring my boat back to the US since I was now needing to hire someone to do it for me. This is an angry insensitive looking individual I'm speaking with. He stares at me silently for at least 2 minutes ,,, then he tells me that he is not going to restrict me and that I'm free to come and go from the Bahamas like anyone else. I still have to leave the country right away though.
We get home and I have to charter a small prop plane to get me and a friend back to my boat. We flew over on Saturday and brought the boat back Sunday. I saw the little fucker fishing guide who set me up while I was there. I didn't speak to him, and he knew better than to speak to me. He walked away Scott Free btw,,, even though he was on the boat with all of us.
The bad economy has really hurt the Bahamas severely. It's pushed many of them to the point of desperation. What happened to me was an act of desperation... I know that now. I left myself open for something like this because of perceived friendship and a false sense of trust. Hard lesson to learn,,, plus it cost me over $30K.
My story was on the TV, radio, and all newspapers in the Bahamas. Front page news... Infamous.
They took all of my lobster, fish, conch and stone crabs btw. As a result, the tailgate menu will have to be modified for the Tampon game. I was able to buy a bunch of conch before I came back on Sunday though so the conch salad (ceviche) is still going to be served.
Because of the length of this story, I left out a bunch of insane crazy shit that happened during the whole nightmare. More than on person involved including the Head of Customs for the Bahamas thinks this should be turned into a movie. And in case anyone is wondering,,, we are all able to laugh about this now.
This has to be the longest post I've ever written.
