May 2, 2012 – Last summer, Rosa Cancel spent a day at the beach with her family, scooping up mollusks in knee-deep water.
Her outing didn't end well. The single mother of three got a citation for illegally harvesting bay scallops. But the drama didn't end there. Delays, confusion and bad information landed her in jail.
"One day at the beach turned out to be a living nightmare," said Cancel, 47, of Oldsmar.
About two weeks ago, she was arrested in the Walmart parking lot on Tampa Road after she picked up her 7-year-old daughter from Forest Lakes Elementary School. There was a warrant out for her arrest because she failed to show up for the hearing where she was supposed to enter a plea in the scallop case.
Cancel did go to court in August, when she was initially supposed to, she said. But the court had no record of her citation on that day.
Her predicament traces back to July 23, when Cancel was cited for harvesting the scallops in Fred Howard Park in Tarpon Springs. So was her brother-in-law Bruce Budney, who allegedly had five scallops.
It's illegal to gather bay scallops, even during scallop season, south of the Pasco-Hernando county line. Regulations are aimed at avoiding the depletion of the scallops, said Amanda Nalley, spokesperson for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Cancel said she didn't know it was against the law.
"I've never been to that beach, and I didn't know you couldn't pick up scallops," Cancel said.
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