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Airline Passenger Fined $1.8K For Undeclared McDonald’s Meal, Weeks After Another Flyer Was Fined For Smuggling Subway Sandwich

<p>A passenger flying from Bali in Indonesia to Australia was fined &dollar;1&comma;874 &&num;8211&semi; double the cost of the airfare &&num;8211&semi; after a police dog found two McMuffins and a ham croissant&comma; just weeks after another frequent flyer was similarly fined for smuggling a Subway sandwich&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The passenger&comma; who&&num;8217&semi;s name has not been publicly released as of Monday&comma; failed to declare the McDonald&&num;8217&semi;s breakfast prior to arriving at Darwin Airport last week&comma; according to the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;nypost&period;com&sol;2022&sol;08&sol;01&sol;passenger-slapped-with-1-8k-fine-for-undeclared-mcdonalds-meal&sol;"><strong>New York Post<&sol;strong><&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Fines In Place To Prevent Spread Of Foot And Mouth Disease&comma; Authorities Say<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The reason behind the exorbitant fines has to do with the fact that as Australia has recently eradicated foot and mouth disease&comma; and have ramped up efforts to ensure it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t reenter the country by way of undeclared meat products&comma; per government officials&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This will be the most expensive Maccas meal this passenger ever has&comma;” Australia’s Minister for Agriculture&comma; Fisheries and Forestry Murray Watt said in a <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;minister&period;agriculture&period;gov&period;au&sol;watt&sol;media-releases&sol;darwin-detector-dog-zinta-mcmuffins">statement<&sol;a> Monday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This fine is twice the cost of an airfare to Bali&comma; but I have no sympathy for people who choose to disobey Australia’s strict biosecurity measures&comma; and recent detections show you will be caught&period;”<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><amp-twitter data-tweetid&equals;"1554004521700847616" layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"480"><&sol;amp-twitter><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The K-9 who sniffed out the McDonald&&num;8217&semi;s mean&comma; named Zinta&comma; has been specially trained as a part of Australia&&num;8217&semi;s recent crackdown on imported food&comma; a crackdown that&&num;8217&semi;s seen the government commit nearly &dollar;10 million to prosecute the illegal imports and curb the spread of the disease&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Australia is FMD-free&comma; and we want it to stay that way&comma;” Watt added of the fine&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Zinta was placed at Darwin Airport as part of the Albanese Government’s tough new biosecurity defenses&comma; and it’s excellent to see she is already contributing to keeping the country safe&period;”<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Airports &&num;8220&semi;down under&&num;8221&semi; now have sanitation foot mats&comma; the outlet reports&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Government officials in Australia have been particularly concerned about flights from Indonesia&comma; where cattle are experiencing an outbreak of foot and mouth disease&comma; according to CNN&period; Such an outbreak could cost Australia&&num;8217&semi;s economy &dollar;80 billion&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Second Major Fine After Another Passenger Caught Smuggling Subway Sandwich<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s the second incident to occur in as many weeks&comma; after <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dev&period;theshaderoom&period;com&sol;woman-fined-1844-for-failing-to-claim-subway-sandwich-on-her-australian-declarations-form&sol;"><strong>The Shade Room<&sol;strong><&sol;a> reported another airline passenger was fined the same amount for smuggling aboard a Subway sandwich&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-tiktok data-src&equals;"7115380280478698753" width&equals;"325" height&equals;"575"><&sol;amp-tiktok><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Earlier this month&comma; Jessica Lee and her partner ended a vacation in Greece and began the journey back to Australia&period; But her welcome home included fines totaling 2&comma;664 AUD&comma; or about &dollar;1&comma;844&comma; for not checking the &OpenCurlyQuote;chicken’ and &OpenCurlyQuote;lettuce’ boxes on the declarations form&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Following the ordeal&comma; Jessica took to TikTok to share her story in hopes of warning others&period; Instead&comma; she went viral on the platform with thousands of views&period; Even Domino Pizza’s account saw the post and tagged Subway with a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;help her” message&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Shortly after&comma; a Subway representative contacted Jessica&comma; offering their help&period; Though they &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;couldn’t pay the fine&comma;” the company sent her a voucher for sandwiches reflecting the cost of the fine &lpar;&dollar;1&comma;844&rpar;&period; They also gifted Jessica a package of Subway-branded trinkets&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"wpra-reactions-wrap wpra-plugin-container" style&equals;"justify-content&colon; center&semi;&semi;"> <div class&equals;"wpra-reactions-container" data-ver&equals;"1&period;3&period;10" data-post&lowbar;id&equals;"95017" data-show&lowbar;count&equals;"true" data-enable&lowbar;share&equals;"onclick" data-behavior&equals;"regular" data-animation&equals;"true" data-share&lowbar;url&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dev&period;theshaderoom&period;com&sol;airline-passenger-fined-1-8k-for-undeclared-mcdonalds-meal-weeks-after-another-flyer-was-fined-for-smuggling-subway-sandwich&sol;" data-secure&equals;"1498eb43b2"> <div class&equals;"wpra-call-to-action" style&equals;"color&colon; 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Matthew McNulty

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