Brothers' Bizarre, 'Stupid' Border Crossing Plot Revealed

"This was more stupid than it was criminal." So says a Canadian prosecutor in the case of two brothers from Nova Scotia arrested Oct. 26, 2018, after getting a Canada-US border checkpoint shut down for half a day, and charged with committing a terrorist hoax. On Friday, those charges were dropped, the brothers pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and were released on time served, and the whole story came out for the first time: Bailey Roy, 21, and Damien Roy, 22, bought a 1967 Buick Skylark the day before their arrest and planned to drive it from Canada to Mexico without having to pass through any official checkpoints (they had no passports or IDs) or stop to get gas (they brought along 21 jugs of gasoline). Using paper maps, they planned to cross into the US on a road without a checkpoint. Instead, per the CBC, they ended up at one of New Brunswick's largest checkpoints.

Upon realizing that, they "froze," the prosecutor told the court, and stopped the car "basically in the middle of the road," within view of the checkpoint. Canadian border officers approached the car and tried to speak to the brothers, but got no response; noticing the gasoline jugs, they got the mounted police and even US border officials, a drone, and police dogs involved. The border crossing was shut down for 12 hours, with all traffic prevented from entering or exiting, as authorities tried to figure out what was going on and the brothers continued to sit unmoving in the car. Finally, after six and a half hours, they exited the car and were arrested. After the investigation and hearing from the brothers that they had no political motivations or any plans to commit a terrorist act, authorities worked out the plea deal. The brothers, who also made weird headlines when they went off the grid twice in 2015, said little in court, though one asked what had happened to the Skylark. The judge's answer: It's in the US, but "you probably didn't pay that much for it anyway." See the full story here. (A very Canadian scandal is making headlines.)