Woman Fined More Than $1,800 For Forgetting to Declare Subway Sandwich After Flight
Subway of Australia said, “If there’s a lesson to be learnt from all of this, it's to always finish a Footlong in one sitting.”
An Australian woman bit off more than she could chew when she neglected to declare her footlong Subway sandwich after a flight home, and was ultimately charged a hefty fine.
After vacationing in Greece, Jessica Lee had a layover in Singapore and decided to purchase a meal from the fast-food chain. “I was a hungry girl after my 11-hour flight,” Lee said in a TikTok detailing the incident, which has since gone viral.
According to Lee’s video, she ate half the sandwich while at the Singapore airport and saved the rest for later, which she brought with her on her next flight.
Lee ended up not eating the rest of the sandwich on board. When she landed in Perth, Australia, Lee was notified by airport officers that the forgotten food scraps would cost her $2,446 AUS (about $1,834 USD) for violating Australia’s stringent Biosecurity Act. The legislation is aimed at preventing pests and diseases from entering the country.
“Those pests and diseases could disrupt our agricultural industries, our natural environment and our national economy,” a representative from Australia’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry told the Washington Post.
Aside from significant fines, individuals who breach the law can also face penalties like visa cancellation and criminal prosecution.
Lee’s plight eventually caught the eye of Subway itself, and the company sent her a gift card with $2,446 — the exact cost of her fine — as well as some branded merchandise. Lee shared the news of the gifts in a TikTok update on July 18, saying, “This fine is worth every single penny. You can best guess what I'm getting for lunch and for dinner tonight.”
In a statement to Food and Wine, Subway Australia said, “If there’s a lesson to be learnt from all of this, it’s to always finish a Footlong in one sitting.”