Newark, NJ – A family of four from Florida visiting relatives in New Jersey got an unwelcome surprise at the Customs gate — all because of some forgotten fruit and vegetables.
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The oversight was an expensive one that has the family fuming, reports CBS 2’s Sean Hennessey.
“I don’t have to be traumatized like this. Nobody should have to be traumatized,” Suri Steinberger said.
Suri and Peter Steinberger are livid after what they call an over-reaction by customs agents at Newark Liberty Airport. They were told they had violated a federal crime — forgetting about an apple, a tomato and three cucumbers in their son’s backpack.
“For me it was like, you know, what you see on TV. I thought I was going to get handcuffed, they have my kids. So I just started to cry,” Suri Steinberger said.
The run-in with Customs agents happened Thursday at the end of a long trip from Israel. Suri packed the vegetables as snack for her boys.
“Let them eat it on the plane instead of eating garbage,” Suri said.
The problem was she didn’t sit with her husband and two boys on the flight and Peter didn’t know the produce was in the bag.
So when the declaration form came around, Peter said he “checked no on all the boxes.”
Customs officials told Hennessey strict rules are for “agricultural integrity” and that passengers have multiple opportunities to amend the Customs declaration form.
“I have no idea what they mean by that except for the fact they say you should have been looking at the posted signs,” Peter said.
While passengers were stunned at the strictness, others said it was par for the course.
“Other countries do it, too. They’re pretty strict. I travel a lot for work and I get the same thing,” said Christine Colella of North Brunswick, N.J.
Customs did say it’s up to the discretion of the officer to “destroy” the product or “fine the traveler,” discretion this family said was sorely missing given the Customs sheet showing the prohibited items and their $300 fine.
“You’re coming off a flight after 19 hours. You’re all flustered. You don’t know what world you’re on. The first thing on your mind isn’t vegetables in your backpack,” Peter said.
The family hopes what happened is a lesson to others that even an innocent mistake at customs may be a costly one.
The Steinbergers said they don’t expect to get their money back but do plan on taking the case with higher ups at customs.
A meshuggenner medina….
Its getting tiring to hear the constant whining from people who break clearly stated rules and blame those who enforce the law for their ignorance or negligence. Just about every country in the world (including EY) has strict rules on declaring any raw food/vegetables/fruit/meat you are bringing into the country. If the stress of flying is too much, than stay home but don’t blame others for your “unintentional” violation of the rules.
article say from Florida to New Jersey? what customs?
This reminds me of the idiots who cross the street when the sign clearly states “DON”T WALK”. They always say “we always do it in New York” or wherever they come from.
Stop whining and obey the laws! Morons.
The customs agent has the option of confiscating and destroying the vegetables or assessing a fine. Maybe so the family would be oiver a lav baal tashchis, he decided to go with the fine instead of the destruction.
Reply to # 1 – u sound like a boered retired 90 year old costoms agent, u know what shut up!
I would ask you, but please don’t reply, since I’m sick and tired of seeing these depressed people’s (like you are) comments, how to u break the law by not knowing what his wife packed for the kids in the bag,
At first glance I thought the headline said “Newark Library…”
(See, there I understand a no food policy, but $300? LOL)
The family is from Florida and they were traveling through NJ on their way back from Israel, thus customs on arriving into their first port of entry of the U.S.
It does say that it is at the discretion of the customs agent to have them discard the food or to fine them. I had the same thing happen to me in the airport in Los Angeles and they just had me throw out the food into sanitary trash cans in the customs area. There should either be a hard and fast rule with set amounts for fines for violations or compassionate customs agents. They were obviously not trying to infect the agriculture in the U.S. by bringing in foreign substances in. When I was in the customs area having my bags checked, another family who got off the plane (which had arrived from Paris) had TREES in their luggage!!!
I feel sorry for Reb Peter, but דינא דמלכותא דינא.
There are signs that clearly state that no perishable foods should be brought in, E.G. sandwiches or fruits/vegetables. Newark is notorious for strictly enforcing this rule. We once forgot that we had a sandwich in a backback and the customs agents were extremely rude; yelling at us and threatening to fine. Since then we always make sure to double check our bags for food. Lesson learned.
the law is the law!!!!
Truth of the matter is- everyone knows that there exist customs investigations when entering the country. There are so many ways one can circumvent the issue and bring the food in if they wanted to do it the smart way and when getting caught try to be apologetic instead of rebellious- goes to show that it doesn’t pay to be shortsighted.
I wish they were as careful and stringent about foriegners coming through with Nukes and Drugs in their valises,
What I found most interesting is the statement by Peter S: “You’re coming off a flight after 19 hours. . .” Since when is the Tel Aviv – Newark flight 19 hours? I can’t believe they circled the airport for 7 hours before landing. Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater.
Im a liberal Humanity activist and the first thing that comes to my mind is to stand up for the great many rules we are privliged to have. Actually, not rules, but law. Sacred Law. We must understand that these laws were put in place for a reason such as containing the spreading of diseases. So therefore the couple should pay for what they have done. Dina dimalchusa Dina
An all this coming from the country that uses the worst strong-arm tactics to flood the rest of the world with dangerous GM garbage.
I had sunflower seeds in my carry-on when I came back from Israel. The customs guy just took it away without any fines . He was a mentch! Now I see what I “missed”.
Sorry, it seems this was customs coming from Israel. The law is the law for valid reasons and everybody knows it.
The issue isn’t whether they didn’t follow the rules, the said they did bring the fruit in, the issue is whether they should have been fined or just warned. As the official from Customs said, the officer has discretion and could easily have warned them and not given them a fine.
The question is why were they fined and not just warned?
My wife and I made the same mistake a few years ago when boarding a flight from Hawaii back to Newark. While waiting in line in Honolulu, we were “beagled”. They have specially trained beagles who sniff peoples’ bags. We’d forgotten some oranges or apples in a carry on bag. The agent asked to see what was in the bag and when he found the produce took it and explained why it was so important to not bring produce into the Mainland. We were not fined a penny.
I travel a fair amount and go through customs on a regular basis. Before you reach them, you have to fill out the little form and attest that you are not bringing in fresh fruit. Once they inspect and find some, you’ve already violated the law (by lying on the declaration). $300 is the fine for the violation.
Why is this a news story? This happens on fairly regular basis.
When you see the havoc wrecked on the environment by things brought in from other countries (moths, fungi, fish, weeds, etc.), you can understand why the law is so strict.
We once returned from a trip to Russia with some pirated DVDs in our luggage. We forgot all about them and the Customs people were more concerned about what we had in our sandwiches.
I love these tzaddikim who take the Dina Demalchusa Dina attitude. What it really says is that we should punish wherever we can, whether laws make sense or not. This bloodthirsty attitude is a remnant of the carnivorous tendency, emanating from our nefesh habehamis. Recognize it well. We all have some of it, but the clowns attacking these innocent victims here excel in being behaimos. If Customs is so hell bent on insuring these tainted foods do not enter US, they can discard them at the airport. No, all you paranoid behaimos, it will not lead to carts full of rotting fruit. Get real. We have entered a world in which every government officer, at any level, feels it is his/her duty to levy monetary punishment on anyone for anything. Perhaps they justify this in their consciences that they are helping ease the national debt. But they are just being achzorim. That’s the mentality. It’s not human, but animal. Stop looking to justify it.
Its not the fine, its nasty and aggressive way of handling it, its attitude, its the humiliation the Steinbergs had to go through.
Many years ago I was selected for a search an agricultural search at Newark. Nothing was found. I later inquired whether the search was done to pick on travelers with yarmulkes. A Jewish named inspector (possibly frum Jewish) explained that frum Jews were one of the groups most likely to be carrying food. He told me that I should understand that not everybody can just buy food at the airport so “religious” Jews travel prepared.
Please do not break the law and then complain!
Two questions for all of you ready to lynch these folks and those flying the dina demalchusa dina banner: 1). How many times a day do people get nabbed with a few fruits in their luggage and 2) how many of those incidents end with the imposition of a $300.00 fine.
Any opinion formed wiithout those two bits of information is just silly noise.
Oh, these self-hating Jews always rushing to comment against a fellow Jew.
Maybe it was motivated by anti-semitism? Why is no one concerned about that?
this is pure baloney when boarding in Israel they ask you if you have any food or drink and like all of us frummies this is for everyone but us they knew it and tried to get away it is against the law and that’s IT
They should worry about more important things!
And a fine of 300$ what are they completely meshuge?
I agree with #1 , and don’t agree witgh #7 (especially his uncalled for rudeness). Regarding #26 , it is true that when one comes back form Hawaii to the mainland, they are asked if they are bringing any fruit with them, as it is forbidden to do so. At the airport in Honolulu, I saw someone who stated that they didn’t have any fruit. However, upon further inspection, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture official found some hidden fruit. He let them go after confiscating the fruit, but they should have known better. I really don’t have any sympathy for individuals who break the law. If they didn’t know about the federal regulations, they should have known. Ignorance is no excuse for violating the law (as the courts have ruled over and over).
Anyone who travels internationally knows that bringing fruit or vegetables into the US is illegal. There are GIANT signs and bins giving you a chance to throw out any produce. They give you the opportunity to check you bags before you go through customs. Typically, there is someone standing near the trash announcing that if you have any produce you should dispose of it now. They give you multiple reminders and every opportunity to stop and check your bags before going through customs because they know that people can forget. What more should they do?
The man was not ignorant of the law. He was too lazy to check what was in the bags that he did not pack.
Perhaps the fines were excessive, but to say that this man carries no responsibility here is a joke.
You like chumras well you got one
Its sick out there…
And getting sicker…
If that “traumatized” her, may she never get an audit letter from the IRS. Intentionally or unintentionally they broke the law, now pay the fine and get on with your lives. It’s not like they are going to have a criminal record following them around.
These laws are really stupid, because who eats infested produce anyway? Anyway no one tells bugs where they can or cannot go, so if they want to hitchhike a ride on a ship or a plane they can do so any time. How can a tuna or a deli sandwich cause a problem of insect infestation any how?
i went over the speed limit and didnt realize. i got a ticket
but its not my fault………….i didnt realize…
I am not sure what to make of this. Either that Customs agent is a real dog, or we didn’t get the whole story. Because my experience is very contrary to what happened here.
I travel overseas, perhaps not excessively, but more than I would like, about 4 times a year. And every time my wife packs a meal for me, fruits included. Often, I will either forget to eat it or would not feel hungry, and I am not about to throw a perfectly good meal away. Needless to say, I never declare it. Most of the time they don’t bother to inspect me but couple of times they did. On one occasion they confiscated my food (my wife think they needed lunch,) on another one or two they just let me through with my food. But never did they say an impolite word to me, much less demanded any money from me. So I am more than just a little bit surprise by the story.
Why, to eat it later, of course. The fact that I didn’t feel hungry on the plane doesn’t mean I won’t feel hungry later the same day. Such obvious things need to be explained?
I appoligize for confusing the educated APHIS with the uneducated TSA. But I still think their both an embarrassment for mankind.
And that includes the DEP along with a host of other government agencies. I recently made a barbecue with my family on a pick-nick table in a park, but a park officer wrote us a ticket for threatening the trees by risking a forest fire.
Yes that is called abuse, if not stupidity, and the same happened here. Don’t give me the poor trees poor agriculture excuse.
And if your so educated, find me a single incident were harmful bacteria has spread from fruit in a carry-on. The problem is in commercial import, not in passenger travel. Quantity of a pathogen is just as important a factor as its identity, and the speck of dust in an apple is no anthrax threat.
But hey, it keeps people busy with something to be concerned about.