$276,640 in Cash
By Seattle Times staff.
Driving 11 miles over the speed limit cost one driver more than a quarter-million dollars this weekend — at least for now.A State Patrol trooper spotted a Honda Accord speeding southbound on Interstate 5 on Friday, according to State Patrol spokesman Jeff Merrill. It was raining, and the driver was cruising down the freeway at 71 mph. So the trooper pulled the driver over, Merrill said.
The trooper found two suitcases in the trunk — one filled with $276,640 in cash. The driver claimed he won the stacks of dollar bills at 23 casinos in Washington, California and Nevada, but he was unable to produce any receipts, according to Merrill.
| The moral to this story is: If you’re carrying large amounts of cash, don’t do anything to attract the cops. |
Let’s see pedro struggle to justify this one…
“Oh, well, he wasn’t a US citizen so it’s OK to treat him like shit.”
Why is having a large amount of cash a crime? Why do you get your car searched for going 11 mph over the speed limit? Why don’t the troopers go arrest the banks? Banks all have large amounts of cash that they give to people, some of whom buy drugs with that cash. Why do banks have to report any transaction over $10,000 to the government? Why do I have to declare anything over $10,000 when arriving or leaving this country? This has stopped how much drug trafficking? Yeah I thought so.
Why do gas stations charge you 50 – 70 bucks for a tank of gas then look at you all funny when you hand them a 100 dollar bill? Habit?
Makes you go hmmmm doesn’t it?
There is probably much more to the story.
Most of us have probably been pulled over for some minor traffic offense, be it speeding, rolling through a stop sign, burned out tail light, etc.
How many of us have had to open the trunk, or even get out of the car, for this kind of ticket?
Suitcases of money? Were they all in $20’s?
You do know that if you win big (I think it’s over $5000), the casinos make you fill out paperwork for taxes before they give you the money. Casino winnings are taxable, as are casino losses.
Why do I have a feeling that this is rather different than some poor illiterate immigrant schmuck trying to take his hard earned money back to the country that he came from.
#3
Ya think?
Doesn’t matter where the money came from, if this was an illegal search and seizure then it is yet another example of the police state that our government wants us to live in.
Is it possible that the police asked if they could search the car and the “suspect” granted permission? I see that on the show Cops all the time and the idiots actually give them permission. The article wasn’t clear if it was searched due to probable cause or permission.
It has gotten to the point where in almost any situation almost any cop will ask permission to do all kinds of things — search you, your vehicle, your home, your workspace, your wallet, your bank account, your medical records, your credit card bills, your credit score — whatever they can get away with. If you give permission, it’s not an illegal search, and they make sure you give permission.
The fourth, fifth and sixth amendments are dead. All any law enforcement officer has to do is claim it’s either for buying drugs or came from drug-selling profits, and they can seize your cash, your vehicle, your home, your boat, etc., etc., etc., and you have no recourse. All the burden of proving something is not illegal is on you, and half the time they won’t listen if you do try to prove it.
Face it — it’s already a police state and it will only get worse from here.
Have a nice day!
I’ll bet a years salary, that money was from some illegal enterprise.
8, you might be right but aren’t you supposed to be innocent until proven guilty in this country?
He should have carried the American Express Travelers Checks. I understand the real amount he had was over $500,000 but after the State Troopers fees and such…
Again, “THIS NOTE IS ILLEGAL TENDER …”
#12, pedro;
I’m still waiting for an answer on the following:
Explain to me, exactly, how carrying your own money around is “smuggling”? Please do so without saying that it is “illegal”. Please justify why it should be “illegal”.
Why should the very act of carrying money be illegal? It’s the government’s job to prove a crime has been committed, not your responsibility to prove that a crime hasn’t been committed.
It would be so nice for you to read the entire post and answer the questions appropriately for a change.
“The 35-year-old from British Columbia, who had a valid driver’s license, struggled to tell the trooper where he was going and how long he had been in Washington, prompting the trooper to search his car, Merrill said.”
so, if you have a poor reaction to a stressful situation (Canadian facing a American cops – he was probably expecting to be tasered), that’s grounds for searching the car?
Even with the Fourth Amendment as full of holes as it is, this may be a tough one to justify to a judge …
The driver claimed he won the stacks of dollar bills at 23 casinos in Washington, California and Nevada,…
Was it really all dollar bills?
276,640 of ’em?
No 5s, 10s, or 20s???
You should get a mix of bills pan-handling, gambling, selling drugs, etc
The only way I can see collecting an enormous amount of dollar bills is to go on a vending-machine break-in spree… 🙂
Ah cripes, I just looked at the photo – and there are a few 20s plainly visible…
So much for “stacks of dollar bills”, and my vending-machine theory. 🙁
#17
That law is for moving money into or out of the country. This guy wasn’t boarding an international flight; he was driving down a local highway. Is there another law that covers possession of large amounts of money?
Well I hope that if he did legitimately have this money that he does of course get it back, or at least about 70% of it. Lets make sure the IRS gets their cut.
When I go to the Mississippi casinos, if they pay out more than $3k I think, you have to fill out tax forms, and they also are not apt to give you cash unless you insist on it. I don’t know what planet this guy lives on, but I would never want to have that kind of cash on me, I try and never carry more than about $35,000 at a time.
I think the real moral of the story is that if you’re carrying a lot of cash, just send it straight to the government so they don’t shoot you and then take it.
#14
Fourth Amendment? Nah, we got rid of that one last year. You’re probably thinking of the First Amendment, which is only scheduled to be rescinded in 2008.
NO, the moral is ONLY COMMIT ONE CRIME AT A TIME WHILE DRIVING!
I can’t tell you the number of people arrested for driving DUI or possessing drugs while speeding, driving without proper tags, or no headlights, ect. Remember people, the rule is…only violate one law at a time while driving;-)
People seem to missing a minor point: the guy was from British Columbia, the pot growing capital of North America…. surely the simple fact that he was from British Columbia is enough to search the car for pot….
If I were him i would have went directly to the nearest bank. I wonder if you need reciepts for that too.