One American man will now have to pay $2,000 more than he expected for a date gone wrong.
RCMP members with the force’s ShipRider Program arrested a man on Sunday after he illegally crossed the border from Washington state in a boat.
Police say they were patrolling the marine border in the Southern Gulf Islands region when they encountered a Seasport cabin cruiser out of Bellingham, WA.
The boat was anchored in the Crescent Beach Channel near Blackie Spit and was occupied by two people.
One was a 50-year-old woman from Surrey, BC, and the other was a 49-year-old US man from Bellingham.
Investigators discovered that the man had left his home port that morning and picked up his girlfriend at Elgin Park Marina in Surrey.
The man did not report his crossing into Canada and did not meet entry requirements under current COVID-19 restrictions.
Police arrested the man under the Customs Act and seized his vessel for failure to report to customs.
RCMP say that a search of the boat confirmed that the trip was only personal and no other criminality was involved.
The man was fined $1,000 for contravening the Quarantine Act and was released without further charges. He was also required to pay an additional $1,000 for the return of his boat, and was required to leave Canada immediately.
The woman was taken to Crescent Beach Marina, where she obtained a ride back to her vehicle. She planned to self-isolate and get a COVID-19 test if she experienced any symptoms in the next 14 days.
