I just got back from vacationing in Montego Bay, Jamaica... Everything was fine until reaching customs. I'll apologize ahead of time for the length..I tried to cut back as many details as possible because I really don't want to make the story as long and boring as the experience was.
Here it goes:
Went in the "nothing to declare" line with my parents & sister. They all made it through effortlessly. I had a backpack on my shoulders, suitcase on four wheels, and my black seahorse case for my P3P on top of my suitcase so it was easier to wheel around. When it was my turn to get checked by the customs lady, she was suspicious of my case and said "what's in there?" I replied "a quadcopter" and she changed my wording with a distinct Jamaican accent to " 'tis a drone!" ... From that point on, she said I had to go in a different line to get it checked out. She said "you need to go over into that line; preferably over there" (Note: she didn't give any sort of pointing gesture with her hands or her head or anything..") So I went over to the line where everyone else was for declaring things. Everyone in front of me had 4+ suitcases full of stuff and many people had taped up flat screen TV boxes to get x-rayed. After about 30 minutes or so, a worker came up to me and said I was in the wrong line. She moved me over to the next one over that didn't have an x-ray machine and it was just a guy checking out things on a bag-by-bag basis. I was in this line for almost two hours. I finally got up there and the guy opened it up and called over another worker. At this point, everyone just seemed confused and tried to figure out what I had and I guess they were scared of this "newer" technology. (Keep in mind that my family is outside of the customs area waiting for me throughout this whole thing..) A few of the questions the customs workers asked me were "How old are you?" 18 "How long have you had this?" 3 - 4 weeks "How much did you pay for this?" about $1300
After waiting for a very long time and just watching a whole bunch of customs workers doing nothing but being on their phones, talking, and giggling with each other.. I finally had a lady come up and let me know what was going on. She said that the drone is automatically classified as a duty-able item and I had three options.
1. I could pay 50% of the value and take it into the country.
2. I could hire a customs broker to figure out the situation while they detain it until I'm "allowed" to bring it in.
3. Customs could detain it for my whole stay and I can pick it up before I leave Jamaica.
At this point, I was simply disappointed. All my research about Jamaica and UAV laws beforehand gone to waste.. I asked her if I could get my dad in here.. she said he can't come in here. She ended up escorting me out of the customs area where my dad was and my dad and sister were both there. She got them all up to speed with the situation and my options. My dad explained to her that we were there for vacation..etc. We asked to speak with another representative about the issue. The lady then grabbed a "higher-up" lady who was conveniently outside of customs at this time and that lady told us we have two options... She gave us Option 1 and Option 3 from the options from earlier. She said option 2 would be unethical for her to suggest. I told the two ladies that I had looked prior at the laws in Jamaica with regards to UAVs and not once did I see anything like this. We asked where we could see these rules and the lady responded "not everything is in black and white." ..... After some more conversing... my dad stated that "this sounds almost like extortion.." At this point, the customs ladies were stumped. My dad ended up speaking with the director or somebody else who was even more "up there" and we ended up having to pay a $500 deposit in which we would get back before we leave the country as long as we showed them that we still had the "drone" and the deposit receipt. (I'm assuming their biggest concern was trying to sell it in their country) After this mess, my only concern was whether we would get our money back or not. I was really relieved when I reached my resort's lobby in the airport -- they gave me a Red Stripe beer. finally.
Now, speeding through the relaxing vacation.......
We had to go to the delayed-baggage office with the receipt and "drone" to show them in order to get our money back. Upon arrival, the lady working the office was the same lady who was suspicious at the beginning and who said " 'tis a drone!". *sighs* .. She was still her lackadaisical self and after about 45 minutes, we ended up getting our deposit back with about an hour to spare before boarding the plane back to the US.
I'm sorry if the story was scattered..lots on my mind when I think about the whole situation. Was I just really unlucky or what? Do you think the customs workers were trying to get some extra cash?? Any thoughts?