It happened yesterday.

My wife and I live in Vancouver and decided to make a day trip to the US for some brunch and Trader Joe's. On our way back, we wanted to stop by the Peace Arch Park and do the very tourist-y thing of jumping back and forth the border and taking dumb pictures.

As this was our first time at the park, we asked a patrol officer how it worked if we don't have a paid Park Pass. He told me to go to the end of the parking lot where there are a few 15-minute free parking spots for visitors just passing by. For some reason, I didn't go to the end and thought I could just park anywhere for 15 minutes. As we both get off the car and walked toward the end of the parking lot, I could finally see the spots with the 15-minute markings so I do the routine thing of going back alone to my car to move it into the proper spot. I then caught up to my wife who had already made it halfway to the Peace Arch.

After basking in the glory of Peace and Freedom and everything afforded to us between our brotherly countries, we make our way back to my car. As I was prepared to leave, this rather rude officer (not the first one we spoke to) knocked on my window and almost yelled at me, asking me why I was running alone after a woman in the park, but now we are leaving together. At first, this doesn't register as something I did because I was trying to figure out in my little brain if this really just happened. So I told him: "No, I didn't run... what are you talking about?" He repeats that he saw me and that I wasn't being truthful. I repeated again that I wasn't sure what he was talking about until my wife reminded me that I did run after her after parking the car in the 15-minute spot. At that point, I was being asked for identification for what I guess is "lying to a border patrol officer" when it was a mistake so routine it never dawned on me that I was being scrutinized this way. I then explain to him exactly why I ran after her after parking the car "alone" and that we are now leaving together.

After going through our passports, he gave them back and "thanked me for calling him a liar". I swear, it was unintentional. I may now be on a list of people banned from entering the US as a result.

If any border patrol officer is in this TIFU subreddit, tell me what I did wrong!

TL;DR: I unintentionally called a border patrol officer a liar because I didn't remember that I ran after my wife after parking my car at Peace Arch Park.