Brickbat: The Pipes Are Calling

Campbell Webster
and Eryk Bean were returning from winning a bagpipe contest in
Canada and drove across the border in Vermont. That’s where customs
officials seized
their bagpipes for containing ivory. The U.S. prohibits
importing ivory taken after 1975. Both boys had certificates
showing the ivory in their pipes was taken long before that, but
customs kept the ivory parts anyway. They had to contact the
congressional delegation of their home state of New Hampshire to
get the parts back. Customs officials still forced them to pay $576
in fees because they came back across the border at a
“non-designated crossing.”