Night cloak
When prices are different across borders, people will always try to make money. You might think, ‘Why go to all that trouble for butter?’, but smuggling actually happened on a massive scale. Butter was cheaper in the Netherlands than in Belgium, margarine was cheaper in Belgium. Until about the 1980s, the emphasis in the Netherlands was on nutritious cheap food; the cookbook Aaltje, the Perfect and Frugal Kitchen Maid was reprinted 18 times! Belgians were more like gourmets, with an appreciation of fine food. These cultural differences made smuggling back and forth very lucrative.
Customs officers were transferred every three years to prevent them from becoming overly familiar with village communities and likely to turn a blind eye to local smuggling.
Customs officers went out into the open along smuggling trails and protected themselves from the cold with sheepskin sleeping bags and thick woollen cloaks. They were not allowed to smoke to keep themselves awake, as smugglers would be able to see the bright spots of cigarettes from far away. The shift supervisor (the boss) cycled past at night to check that his men had not fallen asleep.
In the early 20th century, smuggling was exciting with smugglers walking in groups across the moors, sacks hanging over their shoulders. But things quickly turned grim when deaths occurred. Smugglers started using big American cars in the 1950s. When confiscated by Customs, these cars were eagerly reused by customs officers to chase down smugglers. Both sides tinkered with caltrops to hinder each other, and their use resulted in serious injuries.