Swank fined for bearing forbidden fruit

CNN ^ | March 29, 2005 | AP

[BulletBobCo]

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Two-time Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank has been fined for bringing forbidden fruit into New Zealand, after getting a thumbs down from judges in an appeal, a court said Wednesday. Swank was issued notice of a fine for breaching New Zealand's strict quarantine laws when she failed to declare an apple and an orange while arriving at an airport on January 15 on a flight from Los Angeles, but appealed the penalty to a court. The Manukau District Court on Wednesday advised the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry that Swank's appeal had been rejected and that she had been fined NZ$200 ($142) plus costs of NZ$30 ($21).

[Zeppelin]

An apple and an orange? Let the jokes fly.........

[newfarm4000n]

Slow news day on FR ?

[FreedomCalls]

I hereby nominate this as the "Most Insignificant News" posted on FreeRepublic this year.

[Paleo Conservative]

Yes we have no bananas.

[BulletBobCo]

Thanks...I didn't think anyone would notice. :)

[Dengar01]

I hereby nominate this as the "Most Insignificant News" posted on FreeRepublic this year.

I second that!

[rmmcdaniell]

It would have been much more interesting if she was fined for "Baring forbidden fruit." But this is just plane boring.

[BulletBobCo]

[america-rules]

My wife got fined for bringing $20 of beef jerkey in to Japan once. The fine was $150 for a $20 bag of jerkey. It was the kind that was packed in juice and not the dry kind so they called it beef steak :)

[RightWingAtheist]

You can laugh at this, but there's a good reason why New Zealand has these rules. Most of the native flora is unique to the islands which make up the country, and is highly vulnerable to any invading species, plant or animal. After seeing what happened to their Australian neighbors with the cane toads, and the decimation of many of the native birds and insects caused by introduction of opssums, rats and feral cats, it's understandable why the Kiwis are so uptight.

I know this from personal experience when I went there three years ago to visit family. Everyone, even the children, must fill out forms indicating where they have been in the three weeks previous to their arrival, and anyone who has been at a farm or been out camping essentially get quarantied. Anyone wearing cleats, which can easily carry seeds or even insect eggs, is denied entry. And absolutely no food containg seeds may be allowed in. I had to quickly eat up a granola bar I had left in my bag before we got in, and then, when no one was looking, I got rid of the wrapper in the bathroom garbage bin. When we arrived at the airport, they had security guards with beagles sniffing out anyone who had food on them-and they stopped my dad. He had been at a medical conference in Hawaii a few days before, and left his empty lunch bag in his briefcase, but the dogs were so well trained, that they sniffed a few crumbs of carrot cake which had been left at the bottom of the bag.

[Prost1]

"Those really belong to me! They really aren't mellons!"

[BulletBobCo]

I stayed overnight in Canada once. I had purchased a bottle of scotch at the duty free crossing the border. The next day returning to the U.S. the customs agent asked if I had purchased anything and I told him about the scotch. He asked how long I had been in Canada and I told him overnight. He said that since I had been in Canada less than 48 hours that he would have to tax me on what was left in my scotch bottle. He took my bottle...measured the contents...and charged me for what I had not consumed in Canada.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

What about her grapefruits? Watermelons? Tomatoes? OK, I'll stop now...

[anymouse]

Import of nonnative species of insects (larva often found in fruit) can be a serious problem, if those insects breed and their population threatens native agricultural crops.

Apparently people forget about the infamous Mediterranean Fruit Fly and the Gypsy Moth infestation threats of the 70s and 80s. There are many lesser known invader insects that greatly impact the agriculture industry around the World.

Of course if pesticides like DDT were still allowed, it would add another layer of protection against such insect invaders.

[Calvin Locke]

I vacationed in NZ a while back. The stews warned us of the quarantine regulations. Said that they [airline]
got in trouble for having real flowers in the first class lavatories.

Then the bug police came on board, bug spray in hand, and proceeded to walk down the aisles, out-gassing.

Then we had to wait for a few minutes breathing in the vapors.

Any way, I worked with a guy whose parents retired to Fiji. He came back from a visit with a nice papaya, landing in Hawaii.

The customs inspector confiscates the fruit, saying "For my breakfast tomorrow."

(He was ticked off, which I found amusing, since he said he "smuggled" pc stuff in to Fiji for his father.
Fiji had exorbitant tariffs on pc equipment at the time.)

I don't blame NZ. I remember the problems CA had with the Medfly during Gov. Moonbeam's administration.
(A political cartoon sticks in my mind: Brown, against a bookcase of autobiographies of great statesmen,
attempts to add his "How I whipped the Medfly")

[snarks_when_bored]

Gosh, a country that actually tries to intercept and stop illegal entrants.

And I wonder what would happen if the U.S. tried to stop fruits from entering the country?

[streetpreacher]

Leave it to CNN to attempt to be overly provocative, salacious and misleading with their titles. Come to think of it, sounds like a Fox News headline.