Canadian Uses iPad Scan to Cross Into US

In what looks to be a first, a Canadian traveler got across the US border via iPad. It wasn't intentional: Montreal resident Martin Reisch realized he forgot his passport en route but remembered he had a scanned copy on his Apple gadget, reports the Canadian Press. He handed over his iPad to the Customs agent, who took it into the border office, returned a few minutes later, and let Reisch drive into Vermont.

“I figured I’d try, and in the worst case, I would have to go home,” he says. Reisch said the agent looked a little annoyed at first, but ended up being pleasant about it. “I think a good part of it had to do with the fact that it was the holidays and I seem like a nice-enough person.” (Update: Customs officials dispute the story and emphasize that scanned or digital copies of documents are not valid forms of ID.)