Posted on 01/16/2020 4:05:18 AM PST by rightwingintelligentsia
SOUTH FAYETTE TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A local man’s life savings of more than $82,000 was seized at Pittsburgh International Airport in August, and now he and his daughter are suing, Channel 11’s news exchange partners at TribLIVE reported.
Rebecca Brown, 54, of Lowell, Mass., told TribLIVE her 79-year-old retired father, Terry Rolin, of South Fayette Township, asked her to help manage the cash he and his late parents had hidden in hiding spots throughout the family home.
“It was late Saturday night after the banks closed when he gave me the money, and I had an early (Monday) morning flight home. So, I didn’t get a chance to get to a bank in Pittsburgh,” Brown told TribLIVE. “I was concerned about traveling with cash, so I checked online and found out it was legal to travel domestically with cash.
Brown told TribLIVE she was carrying the cash in a small, zippered bag inside a satchel when she was questioned about it by a Transportation Security Agency agent at a security checkpoint. After getting to the gate, she said she was approached by a state trooper and a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agent.
(Excerpt) Read more at wpxi.com ...
Yes. It is legal. But it WILL get reported and I would behoove the person to have some good records on hand.
As I noted earlier, I am no fan of the reporting rules. But I will also tell you that being honest is easy. Knowing the rules is easy. I am not sure why everyone gets worked up about this in practice.
Most SS folks and all bankers will shake your hand if your business or personal dealings are generating that much cash.
And the drug dealers know the rules and don’t do this stuff. So...you will probably not hear about them getting caught. They have hundreds of accounts that some kid goes to every week depositing $1,100 and $1.756 ever week.
I watched a youtube video a few years ago where a completely legitimate business was raided by the feds. They took all their computers and all of their office employees (about six) were just left standing there. It was because of structuring. However, like so many of these cases, it was just a legitimate company putting in the cash part of their business at the bank, and the ammounts were mostly all in the %8-10,000 range.
But like when they arrested D’nish D’sousa, they come in with black Suburbans and the swat team. Simply because a legitimate company, making money, deposited it in the bank for an amount that causes them to show up on a chart.
That’s not freedom. You should need more than just the amount of he deposit as evidence. If I’m parking at my bank’s parking lot, that’s not proof I’m planning on robbing the bank.
I have not doubt they jerked you around. But I guarantee you that there is something in that transaction that was missed in translation. A guess is that she opened the account in her name. Perhaps with a different title, but with her name. It would take a court document to change that.
The person to blame is the rep that originally opened the account.
You would be shocked at how often that happens. Reps don’t open the account the proper way and the customers are not clear about what it is for. But I bet they sold her a debit card and a sweep account!
Doesn’t everyone carry a boatload of cash on a plane?
I think we’re dealing with people that have cash generated over a lifetime. And their honesty can actually get them in trouble when dealing with dishonest cops.
This has been a thing widely reported for 30 years. It’s a serious problem. It doesn’t affect most people because most people don’t do it. But when they do, they may find themself affected. And not in the good way.
And MOST of us believed that phoney baloney crap about crime NOT PAYING......
Oh, fer pete’s sake, people. There is a difference between seizure and forfeiture. Yes, the money was seized. And I don’t have a problem with that in light of the questions raised. Hows about we wait for an investigation into whose money it is before we get our knickers in a knot.
Yes. It is legal. But it WILL get reported and I would behoove the person to have some good records on hand.
And then this happens: https://www.nationalreview.com/2015/11/policing-for-profit-police-seize-assets-to-pad-budget/
A snip:
The report’s catalog of wrongs will stand your hair on end. There’s the police department in Tenaha, Texas, that routinely stopped and searched out-of-state vehicles based on flimsy pretext and confiscated valuable property, all the while threatening to file charges if drivers refused to consent to seizure of their property.
There’s the family-owned Motel Caswell, which was seized by the federal government because it was supposedly a hot spot for drug activity, even though several nearby properties had a similar frequency of drug activity. The only difference between the hotels appeared to be that the government didn’t think Motel Caswell would put up a fight. There are numerous examples of parents who lost houses or cars because children, unbeknownst to their parents, used the property to deal drugs.
And then there are the cases in which the IRS or another agency, based on next to nothing, simply seized a personal or small-business bank account under suspicion of “structuring,” a crime that requires proof of intent to evade federal anti-money-laundering laws. Getting the seized money back costs time and legal fees. While these owners wait for justice, their businesses fail, their families struggle, and no criminal prosecution ever comes.
Did you read your own link? "the DEA sent Brown a civil forfeiture notice in October, informing her they intended to keep the cash"
Because it ain’t right for government, at any level, to take one’s property without proof a crime. One of those Bill of Rights thing, kinda like amendment 2.
Still think we live in the land of the free?
They duck these issues with the flimsy and contemptible legal fiction that they're taking action against the money - court cases have names like United States vs $123,456.
No. No misunderstanding. I made them pull the card which hadn’t been changed since the original some twenty years before. Adult and youth leaders come and go frequently. Youth leaders’ signatures must be on the cards and we’re on to their kids being in the group. WF certainly didn’t need my mortgage. Yes, had me go into the VP’s office and she had the mortgage papers on the desk and raked me over the coals BIG TIME. That was the last straw.
Who demands a finger print for a $20 check from their own bank? Yes, kiddo had enough in his account to cover it.
Wouldn’t let me cash it in the drive thru and made me go inside and shoved the ink at me. No thanks. I took that check to my bank down the street that I’d been banking at since I was 6 years old and was warmly greeted by the drive thru teller there who knows me by sight and always asks about the family and sends a doggie treat through the chute whether the dog is in the car or not.
Wells Fargo sux.
Did you read the article? She broke no law. They detained her at security anyway and questioned her at length. She was allowed to go to her flight gate unmolested. They later showed up and seized the money at the flight gate. This was last summer. She and her father are still trying to get the money back.
What would prevent them from making up a similar excuse on an international flight?
Then you may be on the wrong message board. "The rules" are grossly violative of individual liberty and presumption of innocence.
> I hope the two get their money back quickly.
And the government agents that seized it should have their paychecks held for as long as the money was held.
You carried fifties! I don’t think I ever saw a fifty in the 20th century . . .My rule of thumb is that commodity prices today are ten times what they were back in the day. A loaf of bread used to cost a quarter, now costs more like $2.50. Same with gasoline . . .
Now digital electronics, OTOH . . . even the federal government couldn’t have afforded this computer - which mostly sits idle - in 1950.
The bank teller is actually supposed to inform you.
A tip for those cleaning out grandma’s home: If you come across a cash horde before you do anything with it, go to YOUR bank and speak with a manager. Explain the situation in general terms and do not bring the cash with you.
They can walk you through the process. If Grandma lives in a state where you don’t have an account, do the same thing where Grandma has her accounts. You may need to open an account at that bank. If you are not a legal rep of the person. Just having a death certificate is not enough.
If Grandma is still alive SHE has to do this.
Or just use the cash as cash. In another case I just collected up the $5k or so and used it for gas and groceries. $5k isn’t going to get you in trouble though.
Considering how easy it is to spread your DNA around unconsciously, it’s probably a stretch to think the government doesn’t have anyone’s DNA that it wants.
I think I missed something in the link you provided. I didn’t read anything that warranted seizing the money other than the feds think they have right to and no mention of any investigation.
The woman hasn’t even been charged with a crime.
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