(CNN) An apple and an honest mistake have saddled one Delta passenger with a $500 fine and a big bureaucratic headache.

Crystal Tadlock got off a plane last week in Minneapolis after an 8½-hour flight from Paris. She was supposed to catch a connecting flight home to Denver, so she decided to save an apple she had been given as part of the in-flight meal service.

"I put it in my bag, not thinking anything of it," Tadlock told CNN.

Crystal Tadlock says she's facing a $500 fine over an apple she got from an airline on her way home from Paris.

But before her next flight she had to go through customs, where she was stopped by a Customs and Border Protection Agent.

Anyone who's ever traveled internationally may know what came next.

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