19 Kids In Hatchback: South African Teacher Melanie Minnie Fined $1,700 For Cramming Children In Car

Police in South Africa were tipped off to the clown car scenario after a shopper saw the 19 kids get into the hatchback following a trip to a burger joint at a mall in Pretoria, the (U.K.) Sun reported. (View photos of the 19 kids in the hatchback here.)

How did Minnie fit 19 kids in the hatchback? Three of the children were in the front seat, 10 in the back seat and six in the trunk of the vehicle, the tabloid said.

The concerned shopper called police about the incident, and officers who were eating a mile away pulled Minnie over.

The children grew anxious and scared as the 19 of them got into the hatchback, Nico van Heerdren, a photographer who witnessed the incident, told the Daily Mail.

“They were excited at first, but after a while they started to get a more worried and cried,” he told the tabloid.

Minnie said she regretting fitting 19 kids into the hatchback, saying this was the first time she took the children from Rietfontein nursery school on a trip.

“This is the first time we went on an outing -- and the last time,” she told Beeld, an Afrikaans language South African newspaper.

The 19 kids in the hatchback were the second group of children driven by Minnie during the trip. An initial load of 12 kids was transported from the mall.

Minnie was fined 1,500 South African rand, or $1,701, for “having more people in a car than it was designed to carry,” police spokeswoman Charmaine Louwrens told the Daily Mail.