Article content continued

On the day of their vacation, DiNatale’s wife came to pick him up from work in the BMW and he forgot the gun was in the console.

After eight or nine hours on the road listening to Gospel music and having a good time, the couple wound up on the Thousand Islands Bridge for Canada.

“My GPS didn’t say, ‘you’re entering another country,’” DiNatale said.

He said he tried to explain to the border officer why they didn’t have their passports and asked if they could just turn around. He said he showed them their reservation documents.

But the interrogation continued. He was asked about any guns and he acknowledged that he had a concealed weapons license, but did not have the gun on him. When asked why, he said he knew that crossing state lines with the gun could be an issue.

DiNatale said he and his wife were given a slip of paper and told to wait inside a building as officers searched the car.

Several officers subsequently came in with their guns drawn and took DiNatale and his wife into custody.

My GPS didn’t say, ‘you’re entering another country,’

She was released after a few hours but DiNatale, who was charged with three customs act offences and two weapons offences, was held for four days before being let out on bail.

DiNatale, who is due back in court in June, said if his intent was to smuggle, why would he put the gun in such an “obvious” spot?

Other Americans have been caught up in similar scenarios.

In 2012, Utah college student Kraig Jacobson and his brother were riding their motorcycles across the U.S. to raise money for cancer. At one point they decided to cross the border into Ontario. Jacobson failed to declare his handgun and was held in custody, triggering a “Free Kraig” campaign back home. He was released four months later after agreeing to pay a $10,000 fine.

In 2011, two seniors from Texas were similarly fined $10,000 each after failing to declare a small arsenal of firearms in their motorhome at the B.C. border. Danny Cross and Hugh Barr and their wives were on their way to Alaska to celebrate Cross’ anniversary.

The two men apologized in court through their lawyer, saying they were “humiliated that we ignored the handgun laws of Canada.”