Two border jumpers at the Osoyoos crossing proved that love does make a man do crazy things.
“According to them, one of them had met a female companion in the U.S. who was residing down there on a visa but it had expired and she had to leave a number of months ago,” said Cpl. Jason Bayda of the Osoyoos RCMP.
“Their plan was to come here, meet with her in Osoyoos, smuggle her back across the border and ultimately head down to Mexico for the winter.”
Bayda said the RCMP was alerted on the morning of Oct. 24 that two men were denied entry into Canada the previous day by the Canadian Border Services Agency and were seen in Osoyoos.
“The two fellows fled on us and one of my members ended up spotting them going across some rooftops. They went up on the roof and arrested one of them and secured a dog with the assistance of the homeowner,” said Bayda, adding the animal was a service dog to one of the men.
RCMP started receiving phone calls from residents of a man crawling through their yards and leaping fences. The man then was spotted running along the beach on Osoyoos Lake where Mounties eventually arrested him.
An immigration hearing was held and Bayda said RCMP were told the men, who were from Michigan and New Orleans, were not allowed into the country and police turned them back over to the U.S. They were originally denied by border agents because of their criminal records.
“People will do anything to evade us and we have some people hiding in pretty crazy places. We are a border town so we are prone to getting those type of calls and it certainly isn’t the first we’ve had,” said Bayda.