Yes and no
My first trip I brought a boom box that was small enough to fit in carry-on but was a quality item. Little box, big, big sound. I had every intention of leaving it with my sponsored child in Santiago and her family. I also had about forty CDs with me to leave there as well.
Well, it did catch the attention of the aduana guy and, as this was my first exposure to dominican spanish, I wasn't quite catching everything he was saying. But I'm sure the gist of it was that this item had to be taxed or whatever the scam is. Anyway I told him about five times that no, it wasn't a gift, I brought it along to listen to in my hotel room. We kind of reached an impasse, language-wise, or he just got frustrated enough with me that he waved me through.
And I wasn't lying. I took it to the hotel and listened to my CDs day and night. It's just that when I returned to the states, I just, sort of, left it there.
I'd say, yeah, it definitely got the guy's attention, but this is one time that my relative ignorance with the language worked in my favor. I'm going back in November and I intend to do the same thing. We'll see how it goes this time.
st louis mike
-serious music addict
ps i think this might be in the wrong forum, unless there's a punchline hidden somewhere in all this