TikTok video: Woman enters Australia with half a sandwich – and has to pay a heavy fine

When Jessica Lee finally landed in her native Australia after a long flight from Greece via Singapore, the 19-year-old was utterly exhausted. “I just thought: I want to go home, I want to go to bed.” She had been on the road for 24 hours. But after landing in Perth it got really expensive.

In a video on Tiktok, the Australian says that she bought a subway sandwich before leaving Singapore. But she had only eaten half of the snack on the flight.

She would have had to declare the rest of the sandwich upon arrival. However, the young woman had not thought of that. When she was checked by customs, this resulted in a fine of the equivalent of more than 1800 euros.

It was “the most expensive sandwich ever,” Jessica Lee told the Washington Post. After the long journey, she had forgotten half the sandwich in her bag, let alone the fact that it was a dutiable item. That’s why she filled out the customs form incorrectly: “I thought the form was for your luggage, I didn’t even think of the chicken and salad.”

But Australian authorities are very strict about what can and cannot be brought into the country. The provisions are intended to prevent epidemics and diseases from spreading. Accordingly, customs showed no mercy to Lee either.

When the officer told her the amount of the fine, she “cried and cried,” says Lee. Before her vacation, she had resigned from her job.

Ultimately, however, the 19-year-old does not have to worry. A Tiktok video in which she told her story also helped her. First of all, she wanted to make sure with the video “so that it doesn’t happen to anyone else”. However, the clip was viewed thousands of times within a few hours, and 1.4 million people have now watched it.

The video also drew international media attention to the case and reported on it. That’s how Subway, the company where Lee bought the fateful sandwich at Singapore airport, found out. The company sent Jessica Lee a voucher for the amount of the duty penalty. After all, she can eat a lot of sandwiches with it.

Sources: Jessica Lee on TikTok / “Washington Post”