A woman has spoken about the “shocking” moment she was fined £150 after feeding a small tortilla wrap to a pigeon.Sam Elkin, 23, from Southport, was in Manchester with her partner to celebrate her birthday on March 9 when she was fined for “littering” in the city’s Piccadilly Gardens, the BBC reports.Sam told BBC Manchester that she was eating a McDonald’s wrap while sitting with her partner. He tore off a piece and placed it on the floor for a visiting pigeon and was almost immediately fined £150 by a council enforcement officer.“The food was literally gone – the pigeons ate it and went away – before it actually got to us,” Sam said. “It was shocking; I got really upset.”Sam said he had no idea it was a crime when he fed the pigeons in the city center on Monday. Sam said that she is feeling very unsafe due to this incident that happened on Monday.“It was quite scary, to be honest, because I’m only short and the guy who came up to me was 6 feet tall – and my partner was in a wheelchair, so I felt quite vulnerable in that moment,” she said.She said she “didn’t think twice” about tearing off a piece of its cover for the bird because she did not know it was a crime.Sam said, “I tried to explain to the officer that it was our first time out in the city properly – and I didn’t know it was an offense to feed a bird.”“I didn’t think twice about it because I always fed the birds in Southport.”Sam also said he did not think the fine was fair, as by the time officers reached him, the offending “trash” had disappeared, having been eaten by pigeons.“A little bit of the tortilla was actually gone,” she said. “I pointed it out to him and said, ‘Look at the floor, that discarded food you’re talking about has already disappeared.’Sam said he didn’t know he was being fined when he gave the officer his ID.“I thought he said he would just warn us and then he asked for my ID and obviously I gave it to him without thinking, but then as soon as he got my details, that was it – and it was a £150 fine.”Sam said he and his partner, who is disabled, were living on a “low budget” after recently moving to a new house in Huddersfield.“We recently moved – like, we still haven’t got our furniture – this kind of fine would be fined, especially for something as simple as feeding a bird…” she said.“I mean, there are big things going on in the world.”