Woman taken off ship in irons for not securing marshmallows at Yellowstone

MIAMI (AP) - A teacher's aide who forgot to put away her marshmallows and hot chocolate at Yellowstone National Park last year was taken from her cruise ship cabin in handcuffs and hauled before a Miami judge Friday, accused of failing to pay the year-old fine.

Hope Clarke, 32, crying and in leg shackles, told the judge she was rousted at 6:30 a.m. EDT by U.S. government agents after the ship returned to Miami from Mexico. She insisted she had been required to pay the $50 fine before she could leave Yellowstone, which has strict rules about food storage to prevent wildlife from eating human food.

Customs agents meet all cruise ships arriving from foreign ports and run random checks of passenger lists and a warrant claiming Clarke had not paid the fine was found in the federal law-enforcement database.

Assistant U.S. attorney Peter Outerbridge conceded there were some "discrepancies" but suggested to the judge Clarke appear in court again to clear up the warrant.

U.S. Magistrate Judge John O'Sullivan, who had a copy of a citation indicating the fine had been paid, apologized to Clarke, who spent nearly nine hours in detention and demanded the U.S. attorney's office determine what went wrong.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2004/06/18/504996-ap.html

Something is a bit wrong here. Yellowstone used to be in the USA. Taken off in leg irons? For a $50 paid/or nonpaid fine? Off a cruise ship out or Miami? :truce: What is going on here?

I'm sure it has something to do with the "war on terror". Supposedly being currently waged in Iraq. US citizens are now finding out what that really means in the terms of lost freedoms.

Edited to add:

They were acting on what they believed to be accurate information. This seems to be a catch phrase lately for anyone in a power position who has been caught doing something that is wrong. What a bunch of BS.