The U.S. Embassy in London summoned a "terrorist" planning to enter America for an interview. Only, the personality in question was a 3-month-old whom his grandfather mistakenly identified in their travel papers.
Baby Harvey Kenyon-Cairns and his family were set to fly to Orlando, Florida for a holiday. His grandfather, Paul Kenyon, 62, filled out the visa forms but he wrongly tagged one box in the boy's questionnaire for the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), Telegraph reported.
Kenyon ticked off "yes" in his grandchild's form in answer to the question, "Do you seek to engage in or have you ever engaged in terrorist activities, espionage, sabotage, or genocide?" Alarmed embassy officials wanted to be sure, so they summoned the baby for an interview in London.
The Kenyon-Cairns family lived 10 hours away in Cheshire. They had no choice but to make the trip to the embassy and present Harvey.
The baby's grandfather revealed Harvey behaved himself during the interview. Kenyon joked he initially planned on having the child wear an orange jumpsuit but later decided against it.
"I couldn't believe that they couldn't see it was a genuine mistake and that a three-month-old baby would be no harm to anyone," the grandfather said, as per Independent. "They didn't appear to have a sense of humor over it at all and couldn't see the funny side."
The family planned their Florida trip along with the baby's mom Faye Kenyon-Cairns and the baby's father, John Cairns. The summon at the embassy delayed their scheduled flight a few more days because of Harvey's visa release.
Kenyon rebooked his daughter's family's trip, which cost $3,770.20 (£3,000). He and his wife, Cathy, along with another granddaughter, Ava, however, went ahead to Florida as scheduled but the grandad said he made an "expensive mistake."
Kenyon also wondered if anyone would actually tick "yes" to the terrorist question in the ESTA form. "If you were a terrorist, I suspect you'd not be ticking yes on the form anyway," he said.
