How can they do that?

3 years ago when we first moved to Canada, we brought a car in. It was listed under Chayale's name, since it originally belonged to her father. She didn't have to pay taxes on it since she had a religious visa.

The car was a typical Lubavitch one, a dump. After a couple of months, it sputtered and died. If I remember correctly we got like 200 dollars for scrapping it.

Three years go by. We are in Russia, thrown out, and now in college. One day we try to take out 20 bucks from our bank account and it doesn't work (even though we know that we have quadzillions of dollars in there). We try to find out why our bank account has been cut, and find out that it's on hold, for the following reason:

The government assumes that we kept the American car in Canada, and unless we pay a hefty fine, our account will remain shut. Or, we can prove that we scrapped the car.

Apparently they sent us many notices. Problem was, it was to my parents address and we were in Russia. By the time we returned, the only mail my father would remember to give me were the colorful ones that are basically promotional materials for Chinese auctions held two months before, and some catalogs for snowblowers from the previous year.

Anyway, so we went a week without any money access. Fun, fun. No. I mean stress, stress. But thank G-d it's over. Persistency paid off, and our account was returned.

Chayale assures me that such a thing would NEVER, and I mean NEVER happen in America. Is that true?