Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Scrap Metal!!!!

Some of the news items I read are the kind I can’t believe I’m reading, yet the weird news is there everyday.
Today’s beauty is from Reuters, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Someone who was importing merchandise from Europe didn’t want to pay the high custom fees, so he stated that the crate carrying his goods contained scrap metal.
When the crate was opened, the customs officials found large screen TV sets, refrigerators, cars, etc. Reason tells me that the punishment for this should be very high fines and even jail time.
Yet, what did the officials do? They brought in bulldozers and turned the cargo that included a Mercedes Benz and a Toyota to scrap metal.
The officials’ words were: “"They wanted to befool us by saying they brought in scrapped metals...so we are giving them the same. They, or anyone like them, will not forget this."
I’ve heard of one good turn deserving another, but who’d think that a false declaration would be punished with destruction. Making an example of someone might work, but at what cost?
Something is wrong here somewhere on both sides.
Unlike the people who claim nothing surprises them anymore, somedays, everything surprises me.