Woman fined $500 for saving free Delta Air Lines snack

Fox News ^ | April 22, 2018 | Alexandra Deabler

[Colonel Kangaroo]

A Colorado woman is facing a $500 fine from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for saving a free apple she received as a snack from Delta Air Lines on her way back to the United States from Paris, France.

Crystal Tadlock told Fox 31 Denver, toward the end of her flight from Paris, flight attendants passed out apples in plastic bags as a snack. Tadlock put the fruit in her carry-on to save for when she was hungry during the second leg of her trip.

Once Tadlock arrived in the U.S., she went through Customs and her bag was chosen to be randomly searched, Fox 31 reported. Tadlock says a Customs agent pulled out the apple in the plastic bag with Delta’s logo on it.

When questioned about the snack, Tadlock explained she received the apple from the airline and asked if she could throw it away or eat it, Fox 31 reported. The Customs agent allegedly told her no and fined her $500 for carrying the undeclared fruit.

[Susan360]

Exactly. There are even some restriction state to state. You are not alloweed to bring some fruits into CA from Oregon is one I have noted when driving down there.

In Oregon, there is a contaminant that has affected our wine grapes. It is manageable, but was a serious problem for the wineries. I think it was inadvertently imported from Europe.

[Fred Hayek]

She could have attacked someone with that piece of fresh fruit!
It’s far more dangerous than a pointed stick.

[momincombatboots]

Wanna talk about tight border control.. the agriculture stazis at the Oregon, California border.. I made a joke when they asked if I had any fruits or veggies.. I told them I had lettuce from Taco Bell stuck in my teeth.

[SkyPilot]

In all my time of flying, I learned there was no upside in trying to mess with Customs or Agriculture.

There are reasons countries (and states like Hawaii) are strict with fruits and plants. The insects and diseases those fruits and plants can cause incalculable damage.

Yeah, I know - our border is porous with human "refugees" that carry 3rd World diseases.

I am not disputing that. It is a separate issue. But that fact does not take away from the fact that you don't violate Customs and Agriculture laws.

Just try to bring in fruit into Australia, or New Zealand.

Most of the Customs and Agriculture agents who met my aircraft were top notch, and we had a great understanding. They had a job to do, and we had mutual respect for one another.

[ronniesgal]

you are correct and the “guy” should have had her throw it away. As in, “throw this apple out or you will be fined 500 bux” He was being an a-hole. She was not trying to sneak an apple (!) into the country. She threw it into her bag and took off for her next part of the trip.
PS My long departed mother used to sneak stuff into the US from Europe all the time. Not saying she was right, but people do this. Just not this apple lady. Honest mistake.

[exDemMom]

I can still see the woman’s point of view, though. She probably did not think the apple was included in the declaration, since she got it onboard an airplane. If she would have brought it from some market in France, she probably would have immediately thought of it when making the declaration.

I have brought some food items, but was very careful and read what was allowable through customs. The Japanese tea cakes from the Tokyo airport were allowable. I told the customs agent that I had walked through livestock areas, and was allowed through after I looked at the bottom of my boots and told him that nothing was stuck on them.

[Right Wing Assault]

But it's OK for illegals to cross our borders without being tested for TB and numerous other fun diseases. They can also bring in parasites and insects.

Hey, maybe we should stop all of them and see if they are importing apples!

[vette6387]

“Why would those two black guys not just wait outside Starbucks for their friend?”

Because they intended to be disruptive on purpose, they accomplished their goal, and the stupid MFer that runs Starbucks fell for all of it hook, line and sinker. And now he's going to loose a $hitload of revenue on this ill-conceived shut down of 8,000 of his retail outlets for “sensitivity training.” The stockholders should give him the boot for failing to look out for their interests, as well as the interests of their customers, the idiots who will pay his ridiculous prices to drink his crap coffee.

[wetgundog]

Canadian Border does this all the time too, so it just isn’t us. Go watch Canadian Border Watch on YouTube sometime and see the heavy fines for bring agricultural products into Canada.

Sorry, no pity for the young lady. Pay the fine and move on.

[yldstrk]

I can remember having to throw away fruit at the California border when driving there on vacation with kids. Dumb. No other state makes you do that.

[Larry Lucido]

Yes, the top shirt button, much like the “refund” button on a vending machine or payphone, is strictly decorative and serves no function.

[Bikkuri]

Hey.. she could have easily SPIT the seeds at an unsuspecting ‘agent’..

:p

[Bodega]

Blue Sue? An innocent apple given by the airlines has you in a tizzy. It’s reactions like yours that make our country increasingly less livable. You have a bug up your ass about invasive species, so much so that you fail to see how innocent this woman is. She offered to throw it away or eat it, But that isn’t good enough for you. I wonder what you are doing on Free Republic. Are you a plant for some organization?
***************
She is new since Sept 2017. I have been reading FR a long time and it seems there are an increasing number of sn.. fl.... in here. Supporting their rights to write their views is valuable, but increasingly it seems rather hysterical. Jus’ sayin’. [Hope she never sits on a jury judging me!]

[Thibodeaux]

The customs agent made the correct call.

The passenger secreteed fruit that was in fact not eligible for entry into the USA.

Since it was not declared, she broke the law. The source or the logo on the bag are irrelevnt

[Bikkuri]

Actually.. for some reason, this reminded me of a ‘training’ session for elementary school teachers here (in Japan).

It was police that was demonstrating a knife wielding ‘attacker’, and each teacher was allowed to try to ‘defend’ against the attacker.

The teachers were given a foam baton (thingy.. no sure what they are called), and told to disarm the attacker.
*they all were trying to beat the ‘attacker’
*they all lost the battle
*the ‘attacker’ asked me to give it a try... I replied that I have an advantage since I was previous military and police myself...
*I wacked his weapon carrying hand with the foam and the ‘knife’ flew across the gym (where the demonstration was taking place).
** And he told the teachers, “that is what is need to be done to disarm the attackers”
*end of demonstration..

lol

[mass55th]

I hate Starbucks. I stopped at Dunkin Donuts this morning before heading to get my car serviced. I got two chocolate frosted donuts to look forward to.

[ml/nj]

I once paid a nickel
 For a Hershey Bar!

How about a bottle of Coke from a Coke Machine?

ML/NJ

[robroys woman]

She should have been aware that it is not allowed to bring fruit across the border.

---

I came across this article a while back. I found it when searching for information regarding ignorance of the law being no excuse when we have hundreds of thousands of laws and hundreds of millions of lines of text behind our laws.

https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/report/ignorance-the-law-no-excuse-it-reality

[thesearethetimes...]

Atlas Shrugged.

[metmom]

You seem to be missing the point in a big way.

Sure, I don’t have any problem with the fruit not being allowed in.

The problem is the way they handled it.

They did not need to fine the woman and the little demagogue who mocked her while handing her the fine was out of line.

She’s not fighting it to be allowed to bring fruit into the country. She’s fighting the outrageous reaction by some power hungry dweeb.