A Canadian man who claimed he only asked a border patrol agent to ‘say please’ as he crossed into the U.S. found himself pepper sprayed and detained for three hours, the National Post reported.
Desiderio Fortunato, a British Columbia man who also owns a home in Washington State, told the paper that he was approached by the guard Monday as he was going to the Washington home to get a wallet his wife had left there. The guard asked him to turn off his car, which Fortunato refused to do until he said please.
"Is that illegal in the United States, asking an officer to be polite?" Fortunato asked the Post.
Fortunato held his ground when told that he would be pepper sprayed if he failed to comply, which resulted in him being sprayed and taken into custody by several border patrol agents. He was released after three hours, but denied entry to the U.S., the Post reported.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman told the Post that failure to comply with a border agent’s order is enough to justify the use of pepper spray.
Fortunato, who contends that the agent’s actions were uncalled for, was warned to be more cooperative in the future.
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