[M_Six]

Wifey and I were coming back from Canada a few years ago and went through the border checkpoint by Port Huron, MI. Going to Canada was fine and coming back through the Canadian side was fine, but when the border guy in the booth on the American side scanned my passport, an alarm went off. He immediately got on the horn and started telling them I "wasn't the guy." My name and DOB also happened to be owned by some thug in California. Not too unusual considering my family name is the second most common in the US and in the year I was born my first name was the most commonly given boys name in the US. (My parents lacked imagination.)

In any case, I obviously did not fit the description of the wanted guy. But the agents inside said something like "We gotta do this anyway." So the agent in the booth told me to stay calm and do what they tell me to do and it'll be fine. I'm like, ok. Do I need to go talk to someone? He didn't get a chance to answer before my car was surrounded by agents with guns yelling at me to put my keys on the roof and keep my hands in sight. They made me get out of the car, raise my hands above my head, and walk backwards until I was well behind my car. Then I had to cross my hands behind my back and bend over. Then an agent came over and cuffed me and led me off to a cell. They did likewise with my wife.

Once inside the cell, they left me alone, still cuffed. After a few minutes a couple of them came in and asked for my SSN and if I'd ever lived in California. I told them my SSN and said no, I'd never lived there. That's when they uncuffed me and told me I could leave. By the time I got out to the front desk Wifey was already there. They explained only that my name and DOB was the same as some wanted thug. They wouldn't tell me anything about the other guy. They did add an electronic flag to my passport records so I wouldn't get stopped again for this. And they explained, without an apology, that their procedural rules required them to act as they did whenever two or more items about a person matched someone who was wanted.

When we finally got to go we went out to the car and found they had left it unattended and unlocked, windows still down. I guess it was close enough to the building where no one felt like it was vulnerable.

I understand the whole explanation they gave, but two items bugged me about it. One, I *clearly* did not match the description of the thug, but some stupid rule made them do what they did. Anytime you take away the ability of the guy on the ground to make a decision based on the facts in front of him, you get stupidity like this. And two, I was never read my rights. I realize that you don't get your rights read if they don't intend to arrest you, but if they didn't intend to arrest me, why the cuffs and guns and drama in the first place?

I've always wondered if someone in line behind us shot a cell phone video of me getting hauled off. I'm sure it made for interesting conversation for those witnessing it.