The offer was even displayed on a sign above the tunnel.
So how do you get offered money by a border tunnel with the offer even displayed on a sign above the tunnel? It’s, well, interesting. The story came earlier this week, and it was relayed by Michael Kim, who played a part in what went down.
Both pros are playing this week’s Rocket Classic at Detroit Golf Club, and Michael Kim texted Si Woo Kim asking if he wanted to get dinner. Michael wanted to go to a Korean barbecue restaurant he’s visited. Si Woo was in.
However, in the area, there are two restaurants with the same name. One is in the United States.
One is not.
“He searches the name of the restaurant on Google Maps,” Michael Kim wrote on X, “and without much thinking starts driving. But before it’s too late, he realizes that he’s about to go across the U.S. border into Canada! There was a restaurant under the SAME NAME closer to him, in Canada.
“He doesn’t have a passport, just his wallet. He tries to turn back, but it’s already too late — it’s a one-way and there are multiple signs telling him he can’t turn back.
“He drives to the gate and talks to the officer. I’m driving to dinner with a friend; I came here by accident. The officer goes, ‘OK, don’t worry, happens all the time actually. But I can’t let you go back so you have to go across to Canada and then talk to the officers on the other side.
“He drives across, waits in line for 45 minutes. He finally gets to an officer and he tries to explain. He’s super nervous but tries to explain what happened. He points to his courtesy car and says I’m here for the golf tournament. This officer is not sure what to do so they drive the car to the side and calls another officer … then another … then another until 8 (!!!) officers are surrounding his car and talking to him and each other. They check his cars for weapons, ask him if he has any drugs or weapons, stuff like that, and they finally let him through.”
“Yeah, so Michael Kim texts me, ‘You want to grab a dinner?’ And then I’ll say, ‘Sure,’” Si Woo said. “And then he shows me restaurant name. It’s called Daebak. So I just put it in the Google Maps. It’s close to my hotel, like 1.5 miles. So I thought it was for sure that one. So I wasn’t thinking about Canada or anything. So I just follow the instruction and somehow make a turn, [and] there’s toll gate, like $9, I had to pay to get through. ‘Why is it so expensive?’ And then as soon as I get into the tunnel, ‘Oh, this is Canada.’
“So somehow I went to the immigration, I told my situation, and then I went to the stop, like, parking garage office. And then I was so freaking out, so I couldn’t speak English very much so he thought I was a weird guy. So he just — the guy’s coming at me, searching my car, and somehow I got out of it. He told me, ‘Are you going to win this Sunday?’ I said, ‘If you let me through.’”
And that was seemingly that.
But the story gets better.
The tunnel that Si Woo crossed — the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel — got word of what happened. You know where this is going, even though Si Woo got lost.
