Streaming now at abc7chicago.co.... Officials say it's important to educate yourself and your children about clams before going ashore. Read more | abc7chicago.co...
Facts that’s 500 deff hurts. Especially all those kids. Judge coulda have easily dropped the charge and not have her pay anything it was a legit mistake. That law is for the people that take clams for profit and know they shouldn’t be doing that. That law isn’t for a moms and kids thinking they kicked a couple mistaken seashells on a family trip smh. That law should enforced on the real guilty people. The cop who gave the ticket and the judge should have Bette r judgement smh.
They didn't accidentally collect clams. They consciously picked them up with the intention of keeping them. The $88K fine is intended to be fought so a reduced fine can then be issued. That is one of the best lessons those kids will ever get. Bravo justice system!
There are literal signs around telling you not to take from the beach and they disregarded them because they didn’t take it serious nor understand the difference apparently. It’s rather obvious what the problem here is. Saying “I won” displays the fact that she has no idea how damaging this can be to an environment. You are comparing poaching to retail theft and they are not the same. A living creature is not that same as a hat or chain.
72 clams? They should know not to take that many. Also conflating this thievery is horrible logic. Stop using one bad thing to criticize something completely different
A good lesson for her kids will be, don't get a tattoo herself for every situation in her life. Thanks God that her kids don't grabb sex toys illegally in a sex shop. I can't imagine the form of tattoo.
Ok smart guy, why don’t you come to California and try out your big brain logic for real. Come here and steal from a store, get yourself caught, and make sure you film yourself doing it. Then when nothing happens you can come back here and prove me wrong. Because, “it’s cheaper to steal from a store, nothing will happen to you.” You should easily be able to prove your argument if it’s true. So, you’re either a liar and a grifter because you know your comment is not true and you’re saying it anyway (which is what I believe), or you are actually dumb enough to believe that people who steal from stores don’t get punished. Your comment is so god damn dumb that you should be embarrassed. Don’t agree? Then try and prove me wrong, genius.
So she got the ticket while still there, at the beach? He could have schooled them all on why this is illegal, had them empty their buckets of the clams-put them back....and everything would have been fine. 90k dollar fine on an average family is life ending! This is absolutely ridiculous. I am speaking as a long time law enforcement officer-there's something called "officer discretion." It means the officer doesn't HAVE to arrest, you can talk with the offender, advise them of the law and its consequences, it doesn't have to include an arrest. This didn't have to end in an almost 90k ticket. I wouldn't go to that town or beach for any amount of free vacation! This is horrible.
*You own nothing and are happy!* There is no rule of law, only tyranny of unelected goons that have the pull to rob you. How many boomers did this in the 20th century as children and didn't get gooned?
State crime, this is Federal. Or are you regaling us with your original commenting??? Gee, how many of these types of comments do I see on these threads?? 1,000??
Stay on topic son. Right now we're talking about a greedy family being fined for being greedy and pulling 72 clams - instead of 1-2. We can talk about the stolen kia in the parking lot another time.
You are what's wrong here. A woman got fined $500 for illegal clamming in Pismo, California. You're the animal that's trying to connect it to other crimes for no reason.
Nobody is that dumb to dig up 72 live clams and "think" they were collecting a few seashells. Especially with all the signs all over the place. Those clams are buried in the sand. They knew exactly what they were doing. Glad the fine was reduced to a reasonable amount but no need to pretend innocence.
Have you met a child before? Assuming she's telling the truth, they don't tend to understand law and regulations. We actually allow them to be protected based on the fact that they're children for things like this.
The judge was merciful in reducing the fine. But the officer should have given a verbal warning and returned the clams. It's not like the clams are dead.
Umm, it's EXACTLY like the clams are dead, because the clams ARE DEAD. The woman didn't have them gathered gently into buckets of cool water, she had them laid out in the air and direct sunlight to be DRIED TO DEATH. And no, their dead wasn't quick and painless, they were arranged in neat rows in the dry sunlight to die slowly and horribly.
Yah, I don't think the kids accidentally collected 72 live clams that you have to dig for. Everyone knows that two closed shells equals a live clam. The fines are so high because there are organized criminal poaching gangs that make big money collecting illegal mussels, clams, abalone, and other tidal shellfish. There wouldn't be an animal left if the fines were only $500. She got lucky.
@@Edwardsjmprecisely. Just drop it, once she realized her kids’ error. It’s always about money. Not to mention the court fees and possible attorney fees she had to pay.
@@luongo7886 we do that by educating people , that $88k wouldnt have gone to protecting clams or to educating people about clams or to protecting wildlife or the environment . Paying it could have caused the family to become homeless so what is the benefit or the purpose of such a fine like that ?
There are over 15,000 species of clams in the world. Out of that number there are about 100 Or so species that some considered close to being endangered. While we need to do our best to conserve all populations of claims and all other animals, it’s not like earth is running out of clams.
Pismo beach has been talked about as a protected beach in California schools since I went to junior high there, in 1964. Kids have to know that's a famous protected beach in the USA.
The fishing regulations are enacted by the state, not the county nor city. The California legislature has a supermajority of Democrats - they can pass whatever they want; the opposition can't do anything to stop them. A significant number of them have an environmentalist bent and believe fishing is Evil, and do all sorts of things to make life miserable for people who enjoy fishing (or clamming). Like enact wildly inappropriate fines. If it weren't for a significant number of poor people who catch fish just to feed themselves, they would probably try to prohibit fishing statewide.
@@solandri69With the massive population of California, and the huge number of immigrants that recently came from countries with little/no regulations, Fish and Wildlife have to put strong measures in place to protect natural resources. Poaching is and has long been a huge problem in California waters. Can you imagine if it was a free for all? It’s not just a California environmental activist thing either. Even the solid red state of Texas has robust enforcement of their fishing and hunting regulations. Texas game wardens are some of the biggest hard asses if you’re caught harvesting without a license. In other words, you just sound like an angry and ignorant keyboard warrior.
*You own nothing and are happy!* There is no rule of law, only tyranny of unelected goons that have the pull to rob you. How many boomers did this in the 20th century as children and didn't get gooned?
This is pure stupidity on the officer who issued the ticket. What he could have done was to educate the kids and their mother and let them off with a warning.
@@DevoteeCT this isn't about nature. Pismo clams are part of the local economy down there. Regulated wildlife like elk and other game....albeit smaller
This is the only sensible comment section on this video. It’s so painfully obvious they aren’t shells, the mother is not that stupid lol to say “I won” shows she didn’t learn much and thinks she is still right not to be punished for removing these creatures from their environment. It seems like she didn’t learn from her actions as if it’s enough to tattoo herself and make a joke. None of this should be funny at all. It should be taken seriously. The wrongs are too obvious here. She deserved a minimum of least $5,000. So many are comparing this to retail theft and idk how they can because that’s comparing a hat to a living creature. Too many people in comment section bashing the system when the system is in place to protect the sea life/beach life. Sorry for my rant. Purely shocked at the idiocracy in the comments of this video. Seems like you’re the only one who actually sees the problem here instead of painting over it with something else.
Reading the comments and seems like people aren't understanding why the fines are excessive. They are that high to deter those who are willingly harvesting the clams illegally, mostly for commercial sale in restaurants and so on. Fining someone $500 for clams they can make thousands on in a commercial setting really isn't going to deter people from illegally harvesting them. Have to keep harvesting in check or there will be nothing to harvest. Hence, the huge fines.
@@naomilevell9990 Two rather inane remarks, highlighting your, Naomi, actual lack of a functional soul. I bet you've never been a child, and were born already old, "wise", and bitter.)
Right. No way the mom is that dumb. She admitted herself she saw signs but did not take them that seriously. And look now, she has a tattoo as a reward to say I won the case. She didn’t learn a damn thing and probably still thinks she was right in the end of it all. That tattoo probably cost $500.
She slipped up and said “picking” and corrected to “collecting”. Signs everywhere. What a great role model for her kids. OK folks, don’t enforce so there won’t soon be any for anybody ever again. The system worked perfect here.
You can't make a living as a shellfish poacher selling only one kind of shell. She massacred scallops on some of her other poaching runs. Scallops just happened to be the ones that got the special honor, probably because they were her first victims that helped her carve a niche in the black market.
Who takes home 70+ seashells ? She’s a liar and she knew they were clams. She showed a picture of them digging for them. She even had a Freudian slip when she said her kids were picking (clams) when she then said collecting seashells. The 88k fine was appropriate to serve as a warning so others don’t decimate the clam industry. People like her is why we have laws because people like her will never do right and the lie about it.
this reminds me of the drug distribution in our city, Vancouver, BC: the money goes into the back door, and out the front door the FIVE YEAR OLD delivers the drugs. Walks right by the cop car!!! BUT they're kids, so you ain't gonna do nuthin.
That's professional poaching quantities is what it is. The judge who reduced the fine is a gullible idiot and the poacher is laughing at him all the way to the bank because she just made another 500 dollars this past week alone on another poaching trip while the judge was busy patting himself on the back for being so merciful.
Not if you are a CHILD and think they are just seashells. The officer could of taken the time to educate out of towners, had them put them back with a fair fine. Rotten public service in my opinion. Glad the judge reduced it to 500.00
@@MyBizOnlu No, an entire family including an adult woman, with the children all different ages, didn't all miraculously mistake digging up live clams for gathering empty clam shells from the surface, and continue their mistake until they had 72 massacre victims, all under multiple signs in plain sight saying to LEAVE the critically threatened clam species ALONE. SHELLS INCLUDED by the way.
She would have had them in a bucket of cool water if she was going to do that, the heartless thug had every intention of causing them to die a slow horrible death and then throwing away a feast of clam meat every month while other Californians starved, so she could stupidly sell the shells on the black market for a fraction of the prices she could have gotten selling clams as food on the black market.
Yes! 72 is NOT just kids finding shells 🙄 they were digging. I'm from this area, there are sandollars and occasionally abalone shells! Much more interesting than clams
people r stupid, clams know they are clams....people don't know they are clams!!.... ya think that really screwed up the balance of nature cause a few clams are taken from the ocean??....fk the big tough guy with the stern face " we have laws....bla, bla, bla"....get a life!
Sure, if you know what clams look like. I doubt many people from the Central Valley have much exposure to mollusks and shellfish other than what they order at Red Lobster, though.
72 clams, all similar in size, doesn't check what her kids are carrying in their buckets 😂 She totally knew what she was doing and just played dumb and blamed the kids.
We’ve gone to the beach maybe 5 times ever and that’s just in our state, not someone from out of town/state. Not everyone knows these laws or even what types of seashell species there are. I wouldn’t expect a clam to be a protected species. Her kids especially wouldn’t have known and mom may have never even touched them the kids just collected them. A fine of this amount for this is crazy. It’s not something like shooting a bald eagle that’s clearly wrong and everyone in the US would know. These are just shells on a beach. This is why discretion is so important.
Yeah, I feel like her story is sugar coated. Trying to blame her kids, hoping she doesn't get in trouble. Don't you have to dig each one up(some over 1ft deep), and also be intentionally looking for the air hole above sand to know where to dig? I don't know how you accidentally do that 72 times.
Where was mom during the time it took for the kids to collect 72 clams? I don't believe she didn't know. She probably figured she would take her chances.
She's a professional, and ditzy is a role she plays to get off with absurdly light fines like the 500 dollar fine she walked away with after getting caught this time. Also it's a scallop tattoo, meaning it was scallops she massacred to break into the black market selling poached seashells.
That is ridiculous any other fishermen would have been punished to the full extent of the law you're going to let him off 88,000 you don't care about the environment at all let's get that judge off the bench immediately
Umm…most persons collecting sea shells walk the beach. People clamming DIG for them - just as they appear to be doing in the video. Clamming has been banned at Pismo for a looong time.
72 clams ? Yeah, "we thought they were just shells" Pismo clams are heavy when alive, shells are empty and lightweight. Let's lie to the Fish & Wildlife officials (Who have the most power of any agency in California) !
@@lindatohara6438 I wouldn't know the difference between clams and oysters myself - I wouldn't expect everyone else to either. Were the kids not given the option to return them to the beach instead of just fining the mom?
I believe the clams died out of water. However there is signs posted all over. A clamshell is smooth and the oyster is very bumpy. Easily identifiable for future reference
A good lesson for her kids will be, don't get a tattoo herself for every situation in her life. Thanks God that her kids don't grabb sex toys illegally in a sex shop. I can't imagine the form of tattoo.
she saw the signs but " didn't pay attention". I'd say $500 dollars for poor parenting is about right. clams have to be dug up, seashells are on the surface of the sand and clearly don't contain a living animal , if this " my family is above the rules " mom cared.
Felony animal abuse, 20 K per clam, plus 72 counts of poaching, plus 72 counts per child of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. But instead the monster got off with a total fine of only 500 bucks, a mere fraction of their profit from just one of her least profitable days of poaching, now the lesson she and her kids learned is crime DOES pay, a LOT.
1. 88K is ludicrous but it delivers a strong message 2. I don't buy that her kids ignored the signs and collected 72 identical (closed) clams, thinking they were interesting shells. 3. The judge reduced the fine to $500 which seems like the right amount. So message delivered without being too punitive.
Right. Her kids look old enough to know the difference between shells and actual clams. And the mom was definitely old enough to know the difference. How do people not know the difference? My parents taught me when I was old enough to be able to pick something up out of the sand on the beach, so probably when I was still a toddler. I have a hard time buying this too.
The kids in the picture (besides the youngest up front) look old enough to know the difference between a full clam and just a shell. Even if that isn't the case, the mom is definitely old enough to know the difference. Hell, she admitted to seeing a sign warning not to take clams and ignored it. And how many shells does a kid normally take home from the beach? One or two maybe, but 72 whole clams meaning 144 separate shells? Come on, that's at least 14 clams per kid! Also, the clams pictured on the tailgate were a dull brown, not "shiney" as the first reporter states. I'm not saying she used her kids to collect dinner and take the blame, but what I am saying is that I'm having a hard time believing this was an honest mistake...
14 clams per kid in a whole group of kids, you don't get that kind of harvest unless the adult is organizing or at least actively allowing the poaching on purpose for her own reasons. A small child might pick up one or two or three and try to figure out how to keep them alive in a bucket or a paper cup as pets, but she isn't gonna decide on her own, "Hey, I want to own 14 dead and rotting clam corpses so that I can keep 28 shells after the animals I killed finish rotting away." She's not even old enough to know unless someone tells her that the murdered clam will decompose and that the clam shell will stay behind. She's more likely to be just looking at the animal in its current state, and calling it whatever the adult says it is, and thinking that "collecting the seashells" means the live animal in front of her is called a "seashell" and she's gonna have a tank full of pet seashells at home. Poor kids had no idea that the animals would all die horrific deaths that day because of being "gathered" as "seashells". And who knows how many such trips to the beach this adult had previously organized before getting caught, and how many thousands of clams and other wildlife she's had massacred for her "collection"?
When I was a kid and a young adult (many years ago) we used to go to Pismo exactly for the clams and we'd have clam bakes or bring the clams home and make chowder. It was great. BUT we knew the rules and didn't take below size clams or out of season, etc. We followed the rules.
From the valley probably. I live in San Luis Obispo and have seen such behavior since 1988. Lots of clueless people from Fresno and Bakersfield. Not All of them, but they are know for sure
Washed up on shore? Why doesn't the government get bent, thinking they own everything and everyone? If it's a public beach and they are washed up on shore, they should be the public's as they please without a license needed.
@@haniotis3421Naw everyone can't just be allowed to take wildlife home. That's absurd. That's like you saying you can grab a tortoise cause it was "just on the ground"
@@TrentAdam Government can take all that tax money(because they have nothing better to do with it) and put the clams back in the water then. We're talking about clams on a public beach, not tortoises.
@@haniotis3421you sound entitled with no respect for nature and wildlife. The government protects the beaches, keeps them clean and protects wildlife. You can’t take something just because you want to. You can’t walk anywhere you want. They were on that beach because the government allows them to. Simple. Be respectful of our land and creatures. Pack it in pack it out. Take your litter with you and leave the place better than when you arrived.
There are signs on every beach, it's the parents responsibility to educate their children. The laws are in place for a reason. Ignorance and laziness not educate oneself and you offspring is not an excuse.
Remember when the bill of rights ment something? The 8th amendment says excessive fines are unconstitutional. They never should have even attempted an $88,000 fine. Our justice system needs to read the damn bill of rights.
This mom has 5 chubby kids to feed. You know she sent them out on that beach to get some free food for dinner. She ain’t fooling anyone by playing dumb. She even admitted to seeing the signs.
Thanks so much, kind lady, for warning everyone about this horrendous situation, possibly real for most 🥴🙏🙏🙏🌞🌞🌞 Happy you got it reduced to a comfortable level 🙂
@@BEmeraldJadeyou are right, not entirely but completely broken, a total disaster, like the wild west. I wouldn't be surprised if they bring back trial by combat.
@@shelbyseelbach9568 She fought it and the fine was reduced to $500 so why are you so bothered by it? The system worked exactly the way it was designed. They deserved to be charged and a $500 fine was very appropriate. If they become repeat offenders then $88K is appropriate. If the law were to always accept ignorance as an excuse then there'd be no clams left.
Of course the single mother gets a dumb tattoo to remind her of some inconvenience she had. As the song "making poor decisions, really poor decisions". That's literally her life in a nutshell.
@@sdilluminatigrandfounder1813 They would have gotten food poisoning if they ate them, she had them laid out in the air and full sunlight to dry to death slowly. She would have put them straight into a bucket of cool water if she was poaching them for food. And they were mostly tiny. Most of them weren't even big enough to be worth the water to boil them for food. People only poach clams that size to kill them slowly and horribly like she was doing and then let them rot and then sell their shells as trinkets.
Why not? A chance to be interviewed and appear on air was too good a chance for Lt Gil Matthews to pass up. Little did he know that it only made him look ridiculous for applying the law mindlessly.
They say "the rules are in place to protect species " well what about the rules on slamming criminals because there running wild out here from murder to robbery and assault and just getting misdemeanor chargers
Ruined their trip? That amount of money could have people out on the streets and lose their house. Those kids will grow up in the slums because of a few clams. What a joke
She DID get a SHOCKINGLY reduced fine, and yet there are criminal loving snowflakes here who think even 500 dollars for 72 counts of torturing wild animals to death, plus 72 counts per child of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, was an overly harsh punishment! That's less than 70 dollars per clam!
This is dumb. The average person has no clue about this. If they're so worried about clams being taken and ruining the situation, just close the beach. Or at a minimum, have a police officer there to watch people and educate them.
