Mexican Soldiers Wander Into an Arresting Dilemma

ht Mexican soldiers, unaware they had strayed over the international border, were arrested near here Sunday after they mistook three hunters for American trespassers and confiscated their guns.

The soldiers, members of the 60th Infantry Battalion, thought they were conducting a routine trespassing arrest before they were surprised by a simple fact of geography--they themselves were the trespassers and had to relinquish their weapons, said Ed Pyeatt, spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol in San Diego.

“They didn’t realize where they were,” Pyeatt said. “I’m sure they were lost. There’s no way to tell where the border is.”

Pyeatt said the soldiers were polite and professional when they ordered an American man and his sons, who were squirrel hunting, to surrender their weapons. The soldiers “even gave them a receipt,” Pyeatt said.

After failing to persuade the soldiers that they had crossed the border, the hunters reported the incident to the Border Patrol, he said. Border Patrol agents arrested the soldiers about a quarter of a mile north of the border.

The soldiers were turned over to Mexican military officials, and no charges were filed in the United States. Pyeatt said the uniformed troops were members of a marijuana interdiction team that was on patrol.