Thursday, June 24, 2010

Another case of over-educated and under-smart...



I have to say that I was tickled by this particular e-mail we received. Again, it serves as a classic reminder that any level or degree of university education, does not provide the guarantee of an intelligent human being.

"Dear Sir/ Madam,

My name is *** ** and I am PhD student from ***. I am writing this letter to explore the possibility that the ticket I got on June 12th can be re-considered based on my situation.

To make long story short, my wife and I took our son to ********* beach on June 12th. Before we went, I got a fishing license for my son, but we did not have licenses for my wife and myself. I thought one license should be OK for the family if we stay together and do not retain more than 4 crabs, which is the limit for one license. A fishery officer came to us and told us we need licenses for each individual one and this is the first charge he gave to both of us.

Then he measured the size of the 4 crabs I caught, which were from around 15.95-16.2 cm and 3-5mm (about 3%) smaller than required (I heard these when he measured the size), and charged us the 2nd item as catching undersize crabs. I measured the size when I caught them, but I am not good at controlling them and they were struggling all the time, I must have not measured them correctly.

The last item he charged us is that I collected some clams. I really did not know that it is illegal to harvest clams now. When I applied the license, I briefly checked the website and only saw that it is illegal to catch clams without license. The officer then showed me the sign on the beach. Finally we are fined 550 CAD all together.

My point here is that I know it is my fault to be unaware of the fishing regulation. I should have known that every single one must have their own license to fish there, I should measured the size more accurately and I should have noticed that sign prohibiting harvesting clams in that area. I am terribly sorry for the mistakes I made there and I have really learned this lesson. By all means, I promise I would never make such mistake anymore.

But my situation here is I really cannot afford that big fine ticket, 550 CAD is the amount we paid for our food for 2-3 months. Besides that, I am graduating this fall and I am looking for my job now. My ideal position will be a civilian member in RCMP because I was a forensic biologist myself when I was in China and I really love that job. This record for sure will be a sensitive issue for that application.

So you may trust me now, I really did those terrible mistakes unintentionally. If by any chance, I knew they are wrong, I would not take any risk for sure. So here I am really asking your big favor to consider my situation here, and cancel the ticket. I would like to do some volunteer work to compensate my mistakes.

If by any chances you believe me, please set a time when you are are convenient then we can talk on phone and I can explain the thing, or I can go to the your office (is that *** - *** ******* Street?).

Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

***

So basically...: "Please cut me some slack because I am part of the educational elite"?

I don't think so... LOL!!!

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