19 Kids in Hatchback: Teacher Pulled over in South Africa for Stuffing Students into Tiny Car to get Burgers

A nursery school teacher was pulled over in South Africa and fined after stuffing 19 young students into her tiny hatchback car in order to go for a quick joyride to a nearby burger joint. According to the teacher Melanie Minnie, her students were simply hungry for lunch and needed a break.

Minnie was pulled over by police with the 19 young schoolchildren packed in her vehicle (about the size of a Toyota Corolla hatchback) on Thursday. According to a Friday report in the Afrikaans language newspaper Beeld, a concerned citizen notified the police after witnessing Minnie load off 12 students at a nearby park (approximately one mile away from the Rietfontein nursery school). She then left those children (all between the ages of 4-6) to play as she went back to the school to pick up the remaining students.

Beeld reports that Minnie was pulled over in her second children-transfer mission, and that five students were found scrunched in the trunk. Another 14 were tightly wedged in the front and back seats. The car Minnie was driving is supposed to comfortably fit five individuals.

Minnie claims she was initially "startled" for being pulled over, but that it was "the first time we went on an outing. And the last time. I will never do it again."

Minnie got away with a mere $60 fine and a slap on the wrist.