Get a load of this:

Mistake costs dishwasher $59,000

For 11 years, Pedro Zapeta, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, lived his version of the American dream in Stuart, Florida: washing dishes and living frugally to bring money back to his home country.

Two years ago, Zapeta was ready to return to Guatemala, so he carried a duffel bag filled with $59,000 — all the cash he had scrimped and saved over the years — to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

But when Zapeta tried to go through airport security, an officer spotted the money in the bag and called U.S. customs officials.

“They asked me how much money I had,” Zapeta recalled, speaking to CNN in Spanish.

He told the customs officials $59,000. At that point, U.S. customs seized his money, setting off a two-year struggle for Zapeta to get it back.

Zapeta, who speaks no English, said he didn’t know he was running afoul of U.S. law by failing to declare he was carrying more than $10,000 with him. Anyone entering or leaving the country with more than $10,000 has to fill out a one-page form declaring the money to U.S. customs.

Officials initially accused Zapeta of being a courier for the drug trade, but they dropped the allegation once he produced pay stubs from restaurants where he had worked. Zapeta earned $5.50 an hour at most of the places where he washed dishes. When he learned to do more, he got a 25-cent raise.

After customs officials seized the money, they turned Zapeta over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The INS released him but began deportation proceedings. For two years, Zapeta has had two attorneys working pro bono: one on his immigration case, the other trying to get his money back.

“They are treating me like a criminal when all I am is a working man,” he said.

Yeah, who are they to treat him like a criminal? I mean, since when is it a crime to enter the country illegally, get a job (or several), not pay taxes on any of your earnings, and then try to leave the country with all that cash??

Sarcasm aside, even if you ignore his immigration status (which you shouldn’t, not for a second), the tax evasion part alone is a very serious crime. Heck, if an American citizen worked for 11 years and didn’t pay their taxes, what do you think the IRS would do about it? Yeah, they’d come in and take everything you had until they got their money.

It’s just pathetic that to CNN the “mistake” here was the fact that this guy failed to fill out the proper forms at customs. If he’d have done that, then he would have gotten out of the country with this money, without paying the taxes due on it, and he would have been free to come back and do it all over again in the future. The way CNN sees it, we should feel sorry for this guy, despite his breaking at least two, possibly more, laws.

Exit quetions: this guy provided pay stubs to prove he wasn’t a drug money courier, right? Will the feds be looking into these businesses? I mean, it sounds like they paid him with regular paychecks, and if that’s the case, then they failed to withhold taxes, not to mention verify his immigration status.

Popularity: 10% [?]