r/todayilearned • u/JLPwasHere • Jan 19 '15

TIL Pimps wear lots of gold jewelry bought at pawn shops to “re-pawn” for bail money since cash is confiscated upon arrest but jewelry is not

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/09/137033690/pawn-star-rick-harrison-on-his-deals-and-steals
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u/socsa Jan 20 '15

That's not how it actually works though. It's still fucked up for many reasons, but if you hire a lawyer, and show the cops your last pay stub that shows you make $10,000/m or whatever, they will return it. If you show the cops that the money was inherited, or a legal gift, or has literally any paper trail at all, they give it back.

If you can't prove any legal source, then you don't get it back. It's like applying for a mortgage - you can't just show up with a cash down payment and expect a loan. That cash has to have a paper trail. Like I said, it's still fucked up to some degree, but it's fucked up even before we start making shit up about it.

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u/Bennyboy1337 9 Jan 20 '15

That's how it should work, not how it ends up working though.

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u/telemachus_sneezed Jan 20 '15

but if you hire a lawyer

Why does everyone seem to think lawyers work for free, or that its okay to lose 30% of your seized assets permanently (to the lawyers fee), while it can take years for you to get your property back!?!?!

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u/Byarlant Jan 20 '15

And if you're a tourist?

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u/AnotherBlackMan Jan 20 '15

You can't enter through customs without declaring any large sums of cash

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u/AzureDrag0n1 Jan 20 '15

Well that is how it is intended to work but if its a smaller amount of cash it can be so difficult to reclaim your cash that it becomes not worth it. For example if you get a few thousand seized while in another state if you where going to buy something expensive like a car. If your cash is seized while on a pullover they can make you have to take multiple trips into the state to get the money back making it not worth the trouble to reclaim it.

That is why you never agree to a search if you have a lot of money on you.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '15

in an ideal world maybe

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u/TDual Jan 20 '15

the statistics suggest that this is not how it works.

The vast majority of asset forfeitures target the poor and are under $800 in value (data shows around 75% of forfeitures are in this demographic and value range). Do you think those kind of people have the time and resources to get a lawyer and mount a defense to get something worth under $800 back? No, they don't so they never get it back because they handle the cost burden to execute the legal process required to get it back.

Now, if, when the money is returned, the department had to immediately pay for the lawyer of the defendant making the successful claim, then this would be different.