(Half Tard) Friend got stopped in Texas; Ticket for Marijuana-Confiscated Vacation Money. Help Getting It Back?

Question

I'm going to spell this out in simple terms to make sure I'm not leaving anything out:

✖ My friend flew out to California from Illinois to visit friends.

✖ While in Cali, his friend (who will be moving to Chicago in a few months) asked him if he would be willing to drive his car to Chicago, since that is where my friend was going home to, so that he wouldn't have to pay to have someone transport it for him.

✖ My friend changed his flight and agreed to drive the car from California to Illinois and the owner of the car agreed that it would be fine if my friend made a few stops along the way to visit another group of friends in Texas on his way back to Illinois.

✖ While setting up the stay with his friends in Texas, he found out that there was a Bicycle for sale that his Texas Friends knew of and since my friend is a semi-professional Bicycle Rider (He's been in X-Games like publications and such) he was planning on buying it. This bike is going to cost about $3,000.00.

✖ Between his plan to buy the bike, fuel money, food money, entertainment money for when he got to Texas, and "Just In Case" emergency money he had $10,000.00 (Ten Thousand) in cash with him.

✖ He's a half-tard and also had a small amount of Marijuana on his person for personal use when he got to his friends, so when he came through the Check-Point at the boarder, the Drug Dogs indicated and so they pulled him in, tore the car apart, gave him a Ticket for the personal use quantity of Marijuana, and kept his $10,000.00 because he didn't have paystubs on him to prove that the money was not "Illegally Gained".

✖ At first, they tried to get him for stealing the car, but the owner confirmed his story so after being kept in custody from 10:00pm Friday until Saturday Morning (being denied water or access to facilities in that time) they confirmed that the car was in his possession legally (Jackhole didn't get anything in writing when he left Cali) and he explained exactly what the money was for but they told him that he wasn't getting it back.

✖ They released him Saturday Morning and he had enough money in his bank account to let him get gas and make it home and he is trying to find out how to go about getting his money back.

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $
It was a combo of his savings, his vacation money, &
money from the guy that was having him transport his car.
$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

Please, before you answer, don't tell me about how stupid he is for having Marijuana on him... He's been SCREAMED AT by many people in the last 48 hours and he is now well aware of his stupidity. I'm not asking about the Ticket, I am asking about how he can get his $10,000.00 (Ten Thousand) back.

He will be able to provide Pay Stubs and W2's for some of it, a written statement from his friend who owned the car, and I think he has bank statements for the rest... (He's a hippy and doesn't like being part of "The System" so he doesn't like to use banks.)

The money is legal but how do we get the State of Texas to return it to him?

Thank you in advance for any and all help you can provide.

Answer 1

Three words for your friend: GET A LAWYER. He's not going to get anywhere if he decides to try to resolve this himself.



And I'm not going to say anything about how stupid he was for having the marijuana (which was stupid - oops, looks like I did anyway!), but I'm going to say it was even MORE STUPID to be carrying around that amount of cash on him. As you said, he has a bank account, so why could he not use his bank card to get out just the money he needs when he needs it? Carry around a little ($100 for example) for those "impulse" buys when travelling, and get the rest as needed from ATM's along the way (or if he has a debit card, even better - use that and have it deducted from his account).

Answer 2

It is going to be a very hard road to get that money back, assuming that the officers who confiscated it reported it.



It is very, very, very common for local law enforcement officers to report as evidence only a fraction of the drug money they confiscate, or to "forget" to report it at all.



And in your case, it suddenly becomes your word against their word; or to say, the word of your friend who was caught with drugs, and suspected of stealing a car, against the law enforcement officers.



Guess who will win in that situation?



If your friend had an iron-clad receipt for every penny of that money, and had some proof that it was taken by the officers in question, he might get it back.



If there is a shadow of doubt about the money, about him, and about the money being taken by the officers, then it is gone. Especially if the money was never entered into evidence along with the marijuana he had on his possession.



This is an instance in which you need to be apart of the system in order to fight the system.



First, get a copy of the police report. See what evidence was entered as part of the arrest. That will tell you if the money even made it back to the police station. If it was entered as evidence, it should still be there, or the police department is legally required to account for the evidence. If it is still there, then you got a chance of reclaiming it with solid proof that the money is legal (not drug money), and came to your friend by legal means.



Check Texas State Law on what is a legal amount of money that you are allowed to transport. $10,000 may be another problem, since sometimes you have to have a certain legal form (name of it I forget) declaring that you are carrying such a large amount of tender legally.

Answer 3

Half-tard?



Your friend flew to California. Yet somehow had a problem at the border in Texas? Driving the car to Chicago?



You're in no position to be throwing around insults about intellectual ability.



You are not involved. You do not get anybody to do anything.

Answer 4

He had $10,000 in undocumented cash. It doesn't matter if he has a job that lets him have that much money...no one just carries around $10,000 in cash.



Maybe he'll rethink his stupid "I don't want to be part of the system" stance and start using banks. NOw his money gets to be part of the system.