The big challenge with civil assett forfeiture is that $10,000 isn’t what it was in the 60’s.
That $10K is the reporting level for crossing the border. When it was passed into law, you could buy two Corvettes and a trailer to haul them for that amount of money.
Now it’ll buy you two sets of tires for each of those same vehicles.
Cops are seizing as little as $1000 from innocents travellers. It’s theft, pure and simple.