U.S. Customs accused of damaging house, trailer

WASILLA -- Things seemed to be looking up lately for Vicki Miller. A back-draft explosion destroyed the Wasilla woman's house in February, but she recently purchased a manufactured log home and planned to move in within months.

She and boyfriend Waymon Price drove to Vancouver, British Columbia, this month to haul half of the house back in his semitrailer. However, an incident with U.S. Customs officials near Beaver Creek, British Columbia, shattered Miller's dreams of a new home -- as well as her faith in the law.

The Aug. 19 run-in was allegedly spurred by border guards' contention that a dog smelled marijuana residue in Price's trailer. Price and Miller vehemently deny having had marijuana, but Customs impounded the trailer for further inspection.

The couple drove Miller's cab back to Wasilla, where he owns gravel excavation and Canadian import businesses at Mile 49 Parks Highway. U.S. Customs officials, flanked by Alaska State Troopers and National Guard personnel, showed up Monday with Price's trailer and another flatbed truck containing sections of the house.

Inside the truck, pieces of the log home that had been carefully packed in Vancouver were jostled and broken. The roof was bent, logs were split and cracked, and siding was tossed on its side.

"We told them this is loaded by dimensions and weight," Miller said. "They just crammed stuff in there."

Also, large chunks of the interior wood walls of Price's trailer had been ripped away, holes were punched in the trailer, and the driver's side wall was bowed out.

Price added that Customs officials tossed items into the cab recklessly during a three-hour search at Beaver Creek.

Now, Price and Miller say, much of the $70,000 house is ruined and Price's $30,000 truck is badly damaged.

"I lost everything," Miller said. "That was my retirement. I'm blown away by this. I've always respected the law. We're Americans, not terrorists."

Ed Sale, U.S. Customs and Border agent in Portland, Ore., called the inspection routine.

"Any vehicle coming into the U.S. is subject to a search," he said.

In this case, a federal Department of Defense agent's marijuana-sniffing dog got what Sale called "an alert" inside the truck as well as in the cab. The latter was from a pipe with traces of a substance that registered positive in a field test for marijuana, Sale said.

Because there was no equipment to adequately search the truck at Beaver Creek, he said, officials decided to transport it to Anchorage for further investigation.

"We opened the back of the trailer and discovered it was very tightly packed," Sale said. "It was obvious that we were not going to be able to take things out at the port of entry."

In Anchorage, another drug-sniffing dog "alerted" for marijuana at the same spot as the first dog, he added. However, a green leafy material found in the trailer tested negative for marijuana.

Sale said he couldn't explain why both dogs were drawn to the same area. "But a find by a dog doesn't happen very often," he said.

During an interview Monday just after federal officials left his business, Price bristled at the allegation of marijuana residue in his trailer.

"I've worked my butt off for what I got," he said. "It sure didn't come from that direction."

"If that was true," Miller said, "why did they let us go?"

They believe the incident was sparked by their dog, a 15-pound rat terrier named "Mousie" that slept peacefully on a couch Monday afternoon as the couple recounted their tale.

When they pulled into the Customs stop, Price said, agents and a German shepherd began circling the truck, looking here and there. Without asking whether a dog was inside, an agent opened the truck's cab and the shepherd jumped inside.

Price said Mousie, who had been roughed up recently by three large dogs, bit the shepherd in defense of its space. Price recalled saying "good," not because the shepherd was bitten but because Mousie didn't get another beating.

"That's when he got uncorked," Price said of the dog's handler. "They took claw hammers and ripped pieces out of the walls."

"We complied with everything, but five of those people went inside and tore things apart," Miller said. "What gives them the right to destroy personal property?"

Sale said the couple may fill out forms seeking compensation for perceived damages. He also rejected Mousie's biting the shepherd as provocation for a thorough search.

"Our reaction was simply based on the dog alerting," Sale said.

Miller scoffed at the idea of filing damage forms. "Battling with them would be an endless battle because they're like gods," she said.

She and Price aren't sure what steps to take next, although Miller said she might contact Sen. Ted Stevens' office to ask for his help.

"I'm just beside myself," Miller said. "What's next? And to think it's our own government."