A tourist filled a bucket with queen conch in the Keys, police say. He went to jail

You could be jailed in the Florida Keys for keeping undersized lobster tails.

Police and prosecutors go after people who break the law.

According to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, a 51-year-old Houston man found out about that on Wednesday.

Tony Truong was arrested and charged with a crime. The visitor to the Keys was unsuccessful in his scheme.

Truong was walking out of the water with a bucket and a shirt. He threw his shirt under his vehicle when he saw the sheriff's office. Truong had put some in the shirt and some in the bucket, according to the sheriff's office.

Between the Middle Keys city of Marathon and the village of Islamorada in the Upper Keys, he was captured.

Adam Linhardt is a spokesman for the sheriff's office.

Truong was taken to the jail. According to jail records, he was freed about four hours later.

It's not clear if he has legal representation. He will be appearing at the Monroe County Courthouse in August.

He is not the first person to think he could get away with taking a slow moving marine snail that is illegal to harvest in Florida.

A Texas woman was sentenced to jail for taking 40 queen conchs in a case that was brought by the Florida Fish and Wildlife commission.

All of the food was taken to the ocean.

What’s a ‘Conch’?

Commercial and recreational harvest of queen conch are not allowed in the U.S.

The conch fishery in the U.S. was closed in the 70s due to overfishing. Americans still get their hands on the mollusks.

In Key West, Conch meat is used to make Conch Salad and Conch Fritters. The United States imports most of its meat from that place.

Queen conch can live up to 40 years and grow up to 12 inches long.

The Key West locals call themselves "conchs" because of the symbolism of the shell.

The mascot is the conch. The football and softball teams are called the Fighting Conchs.

A "conch" is a point of pride in Key West since it is used to describe someone who is native to the island. Locals only consider someone who has a family that has been around for at least a generation.