$440,000 Found During Traffic Stop

The Indy Channel ^ | 10/18/07

[Abathar]

CROWN POINT, Ind. -- Lake County police said a secret compartment found in a sport utility vehicle pulled over for speeding contained $440,000 in cash.

Lake County Sheriff Rogelio "Roy" Dominguez said Monday's discovery during the routine traffic stop was his agency's biggest ever single cash seizure.

Police said the Ford Explorer's driver seemed nervous when he stopped the vehicle on Interstate 80/94 for speeding. A police dog indicated something suspicious was hidden in the back of the Explorer, leading a deputy to the secret compartment.

The vehicle's driver told officers she didn't know the vehicle had a secret compartment. She was released pending further investigation.

[Abathar]

This gets me madder than anything. I have carried extrememly large amounts of cash before from COD sales.

WTF gives that cop the right to question someone for carrying a large amount of cash, hidden or otherwise? If there wasn't any drugs in with it then I think it's smart TO conceal it that way. You have the right to remain silent, if you choose to exercise that right and not answer why you have it then what will I be charged with if I was pulled over someday?

It's no ones business how much money you chose to carry, $1 or $1,000,000. If it was Bill Gates carrying it whould it be confinscated too? If not then why is it rich people can have a lot of cash but us poor common folk can't?

[JamesP81]

Lake County Sheriff Rogelio "Roy" Dominguez said Monday's discovery during the routine traffic stop was his agency's biggest ever single cash seizure.

I think the police had better come up with a damned good reason why they seized the money.

[BenLurkin]

There must be something missing from this story.

If I get pulled over for speeding the cops can empty my wallet?

Isn’t that skipping a step?

[mbynack]

I can’t understand how this is constitutional. I know that the courts have decided it is, but I don’t think the framers of the Constitution would have agreed.

[Psycho_Bunny]

It amazes me that courts will support the "right" of teachers to teach 5th-graders about homosexual sex but not strike down the stealing of cash by police departments.

[Thrownatbirth]

Someone is going to get some bad news from his old lady. “Honey, you’d better sit down....”

[NativeNewYorker]

If I get pulled over for speeding the cops can empty my wallet? Isn’t that skipping a step?

Not at all. Consider this an effort to streamline government administration. /sarc

[KoRn]

Yet another case of carrying money “illegally”?

[Rome2000]

They don't need a reason and this isn't a free country.

Might as well go all the way and have coup de tat and a dictator and then at least we can take care of the socialist problem and the press.

[Just another Joe]

This is what the WO(S)Ds has brought us.

Is it constitutional? No.

Will it continue? Yas.

[AppyPappy]

I’m sure he earned it in tips at the local cantina. Perfectly innocent.

[garyhope]

Hmmmm, I wonder if my car has a “secret compartment” with large amounts of cash that I don’t know about?

[Red Badger]

If I get pulled over for speeding the cops can empty my wallet?

I take it you've never driven in Georgia with an out of state plate.............

[camle]

"A police dog indicated something suspicious was hidden in the back of the Explorer"

bomb sniffing dogs, drug sniffing dogs, nnow CASH sniffing dogs! whatever will they think of next?

[Abathar]

I wonder if it has been taken to the supreme court. I went with my father in law back in ‘90 when he sold 3 alpacas with babies on their side, he walked away with $180K in cash. He was nervous about carrying that much but also didn’t trust the guy with a check. I can see the same thing happening to someone like him.

[wtc911]

You are 100% correct, let's forbid all police activity based on training, experience, observation, trained canine searches and knowledge of drug traffic and money laundering practices.

Let's extend it to mid-eastern students travelling around buying cell phones by the hundreds. It's absolutely nobody's business what they're going to do with these perfectly legal purchases.

[bmwcyle]

In Georgia isn’t there driving while Yankee?

[jas3]

I think the police had better come up with a damned good reason why they seized the money.

What do you think you live in a free country or something? Under current law, the law enforcement agencies are perfectly within their rights to seize cash for no reason whatsoever. And the owner of the cash must prove that he was carrying it for good reason in order to get it back. "Good reasons" generally take about a year to work through the system. In the meantime one has to pay his attorneys a substantial sum to have any hope of getting one's cash back.

The War on Drugs has eroded the citizenry's freedoms rather substantially.

jas3

p.s. The law enforcement agencies doing the seizing don't actually have to prove a crime or even CHARGE you with a crime to keep your cash, which typically they get to spend a large % of as part of their operating budget. Real nice, huh?

[Abathar]

Nope, I would bet the farm it isn’t innocent at all but it doesn’t matter. Without evidence other than a dog bark it’s no one else's business how much money you want to carry.

[bird4four4]

I’m sure he earned it in tips at the local cantina. Perfectly innocent.

Why bother with that whole proof of guilt thing anyway. Lets just assume it wasn't perfectly innocent.