MAN OUTRAGED BY DAMAGE DONE BY BORDER AGENTS

ANCHORAGE (AP) A Wasilla man contends U.S. border agents are
responsible for thousands of dollars of damage done to his trailer and
a disassembled log home after he was stopped for a search at the
Alaska-Canada border.

"They act like, I don't know how to say it, like heathens," Waymon
Price said.

U.S. Customs officials said the Aug. 19 incident occurred when a
drug-sniffing German shepherd got a whiff of marijuana.

On that day, Price hauled half of a disassembled custom log home to
the Alaska border from Vancouver, British Columbia. Price, 45, and his
fiancee, Vicki Miller, 54, planned to assemble the log home in the
Butte, south of Palmer, before winter.

Miller and Price's rat terrier, Mouse, were traveling the Alaska
Highway with him. At the border, a U.S. Department of Defense agent
with the German shepherd inspected the tractor and 53-foot trailer.
The agent apparently didn't know there was a dog in the cab of the
rig, and when he opened the door, Mouse bit the German shepherd.

The Defense Department agent told Price what had happened.

"Good," Price responded.

Price said he was thinking about his 14-pound terrier, which has been
mauled three times by bigger dogs, rather than how his response would
sound to the agent.

The Defense Department agent "just come uncorked," Price told the
Anchorage Daily News. "Fuming uncorked."

Price said customs agents started tearing through the cab of the
tractor-trailer. Customs agents also emptied some items out of the
trailer, Price said. After three hours, agents said that they were
going to take the trailer to Anchorage for further inspection, Price
said.

Ed Sale, a Customs and Border Protection spokesman in Portland, Ore.,
said he did not know how long Price was held at the border. The
dogfight had nothing to do with why the trailer was seized, he said.

Sale said the German shepherd "had a hit" for drugs in the cab of
Price's rig and on the outside of his trailer. In the cab, agents
found a pipe that field-tested positive for trace amounts of
marijuana, Sale said. The trailer was too tightly packed to inspect
very far, so it was transported to Anchorage, he said.

Price said Miller found the pipe at a rest stop outside Beaver Creek.
Sale said the pipe was destroyed on site.

In Anchorage, another drug dog was taken around the outside of the
trailer, Sale said. That dog signaled for drugs at the same spot the
German shepherd did, he said. Inside the truck, officials found a
small amount of a green substance, which tested negative, Sale said.

No charges were filed.

On Monday, customs officials returned Price's belongings to his
property. Sale said he didn't know anything about the condition of
Price's belongings. If there is damage, Sale said, Price is welcome to
file a claim.