Had another run in with customs over a music tape.... when the Beatles first became big in America, there was a start up band in San Francisco called Jefferson Airplanes that the Beatles sent a tape to.... a couple of the band members came by the airport about 8:30 pm to pick up the tape, but it wasn't cleared customs... as a commercial shipment it could not be cleared after 5 pm... they insisted that it wasn't not a commercial shipment, but a gift for them from the Beatles.... The inspector did not buy that and was refusing to release the tape... I called in a supervisor who was more knowledgeable than me.... even he had trouble, but eventually quoted enough regs that customs finally signed off on the release.....
But I got a major REAMing from the inspector and for a couple of years every shipment I present to him, he questioned and gave me a hard time... until one Sunday I had a perishable shipment for a local restaurant whose Mater D, had his own customs license to clear shipments...
no one and I do mean no one on the airport liked dealing with him, he was arrogant, rude and a general AH.... The inspector went through his shipment piece by piece,, fish by fish, duck by duck, cheese by cheese.... and confiscate several items that were forbidden imports.... after that I was back on his good side.
After I moved to Houston and was working the airport there, mostly in exports, I got friendly with several of the local customs inspectors... I told that story above and a couple of the Houston inspectors started laughing and asked if he a guy name Cornealis.... I said yes and they really had a laugh... seems he was a joke through the customs service.
