A mom from California was left shocked after she received a hefty fine because her children collected 72 clams from a beach thinking they were seashells.
Last year, Charlotte Russ from Fresno decided to take her five children to Pismo Beach for a little family getaway but little did she know something so innocent would lead her to getting in trouble with law enforcement.
The mom was unaware that the beach, which is known as the 'Clam Capital of the World', is home to hundreds of mollusks that are illegal to remove without a license, so when her kids came up to her holding 72 of them between themselves, she didn't bat an eyelid.
However, things took a turn for the worse when she was approached by a member of the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife and given a fine of $89,000.
"My kids they thought they were collecting seashells, but they were actually collecting clams, 72 to be exact," Russ told ABC 7.
"Right before we went, that's when I opened it and that's when I saw the amount," she added.
By then it was too late and the official had already written her up for the crime.
They later issued her a fine in the mail, ordering her to pay a staggering $88,993 for her kids' seemingly innocent treasure hunt.
"It made me really sad and depressed, and it kind of ruined our trip,” she told the outlet.
But thankfully, there was a silver lining in all of this.
After explaining her mistake to a San Luis Obispo County judge where she appeared to try and dispute the fine, she got it reduced to $500.
To celebrate her court win she even got a tattoo of a selfish on her arm, but she - nor her kids - have forgotten the life lesson they learned from all of this.
"They know now at the beach don’t touch anything [at the beach]," she said. "But they know now what a clam is, compared to what a seashell is now, I’ve had to explain that to them."
"It was definitely one expensive trip to Pismo, unforgettable," Russ added.
The Department of Fish and Wildlife spoke out about the incident and said that the harsh rules are in place for a reason.
"The reason we we have these regulations is because we have to let them get to 4 and a half inches so they can spawn so they can have they can have offspring every year, and they have juvenile clams," Lieutenant Matthew Gil said.
Gil said that it's important for anyone visiting the beach to familiarize themselves with wildlife regulations and the different animals. He said you can tell apart a clam from other mollusks based on how difficult it is to pull apart their shell.
"If you have a dead sand dollar, a dead animal, or something like that, or you have a broken seashell, that's fine," he said, adding, "Pismo clams - what you're gonna see is both shells will be intact together."
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