USA
Windsurfing Santa is an illegal alien
Posted Tue, 24 Dec
2002
Having forsaken the traditional reindeer, a windsurfing Santa Claus was
arrested by US Border Patrol guards for illegally entering the United
States from Canada.
Ontario businessman John Fulton was picked up Sunday after completing
the crossing of the Niagara River between Fort Erie, Canada, and Buffalo,
New York.
Fulton (42) has donned a Santa Claus outfit and made the river crossing
on a windsurf board every Christmas for the past 18 years, but this time
the goodwill of the US Immigration and Naturalisation Service apparently
ran out.
Fulton displayed no bitterness at being arrested, saying he understood
the border security situation had changed in the wake of the September 11
terrorist attacks.
"Basically I entered the country illegally," he told the CNN news
network.
On reaching the other side of the river, Fulton was quickly taken in
charge by the Border Patrol officers who made him take off his Santa suit,
patted him down, put him into a patrol car and drove off with him.
"I'm right behind what they did," Fulton said. "Post 9/11, this is the
world we live in. For them, the publicity stunt is good: 'We're not even
going to let Santa Claus in the country illegally'."
Fulton said he had the officials add to his paperwork that the "subject
inadvertently landed in the US while performing Surfing Santa duties."
The businessman makes the annual crossing to raise money for a
non-profit organisation for the homeless, and a support group for troubled
teenagers — both based in Ontario.
"They were real nice guys," Fulton said of the border guards.
"They took me back to their headquarters there, photographed me and
fingerprinted me. I felt like an illegal alien. I would have rather had my
Santa suit on."
AFP
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