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Nobody deserves to be screamed at and arrested over which store at the outlet mall they are visiting, even if the guy was being intentionally difficult himself. The point is that this was an unnecessary confrontation with an irate but completely harmless traveler, and the border agent did everything in his power to escalate it into something much bigger than it ever needed to be - thereby wasting his time (which should be spent looking for actual threats) and probably the time of hundreds of other travelers waiting in line at the bridge.

I've been through this exact same border crossing many times and the U.S. guards there *are* complete @$$holes. It doesn't matter where you are from or how polite and cooperative you are. They like their authority and they use everything as a pretext to exercise it for the sake of exercising it. A little "hello, and welcome to the United States? May I ask the purpose of your visit today?" would go a long way.