Union Jack
Quite close to the truth. I arrived in Aberdeen and slowly the carousol emptied and the source dried up. There were three others in the same boat and I recognised one of them as standing in the steerage line at check-in HK. It was assessed that the handlers at Thiefrow had not had enough time to riff through our bags in time to connect to the Aberdeen flight
We all trotted off to the BA office and had to fill in forms describing our baggage, etc. Because our baggage had originated from overseas we were all given a customs form to fill in.
Therein was a problem.
Owing to an oversight by my staff in China they had loaded 600 Benson & Hedges in my bag and they had not told me until after it had been checked in at Shekou. (I was flying with Cathay so the baggage check in was done before you caught the ferry from Shekou to Chep Lap Kok). I then had to declare those on the form.
I was assured by BA that when it arrived it would be forwarded to me by taxi and so I went home. It then occured to me that they hadn't asked for my keys so somebody was going to have to twist the cheap padlock off.
The taxi arrived that afternoon, unopened and no bill. I found on subsequent arrivals at Heathrow that if you were working overseas and had a bit of an excess as long as you declared it they waved you through. To much paperwork if you insisted on declaring it.
Up to the turn of the century there was not to much of a problem with dodgy watches, etc. As long as it was for your personal use and there was only ONE of them then it would be waved through. Unfortunately an EU directive came along and scotched that so everything had to be destroyed.
What it meant was that a fashion hanbag produced in China and sold at the tenth of the cost of an identical handbag made in China had to be destroyed so the label owner could continue to make a killing.