Thread: Waitress Gets $12,000 Tip. She Tells Cops. Cops Keep $11,000.

Waitress Gets $12,000 Tip. She Tells Cops. Cops Keep $11,000.

Written by Gary North on April 10, 2012

A waitress was left a $12,000 tip. She was suspicious. She called the cops.

The cops told her she would get it back after 60 days if no one claimed it.

The police department than kept $11,000 and gave her a $1,000 reward.

She is suing the police.

Basic to confidence in civil government is the belief that the police are not corrupt, that they are dedicated to protecting citizens. But then asset forfeiture laws enable the police to confiscate currency on the assumption that currency must be the producer of illegal behavior. They don’t bother to prove this. They just keep the money. The courts generally uphold the police.

Is this legalized theft? Of course.

In the waitress’s case, the cops say it’s drug money. Proof? None.

The cops promised to return the money in 60 days. After 90 days, she complained.

The police department then gave her a $1,000 reward.

When the media got hold of the story, the police department clammed up. OIn what basis? It’s an on-going investigation.

Nixon called this stonewalling. But he was not a crook. He said so. The police are not crooks, either. Just ask them.

Police argue that the money had a strong odor of marijuana and therefore falls under a law that allows for forfeiture of the money because it was in the proximity of a controlled substance, the lawsuit states. But there were no drugs in the box and Richie said he believes this law is not being used correctly.

What is the evidence? The cops asked their dog. “A police dog also performed a sniff test on the money and, according to the dog’s handler, discovered an odor.”

Two of Knutson’s co-workers, along with her son Brandon, were at the Fryn’ Pan the night she discovered the money. Her co-workers say they did not smell marijuana.

“I know the smell of marijuana,” Nickolas Fronning, a line cook at the Fryn’ Pan, said in an affidavit. “I can also assure you that there was no smell of marijuana on the bills or coming from the box.”

Like the dog, I detect an odor. It’s not marijuana.

Asset forfeiture rewards corruption. It is happening all over the English-speaking world. It has been since the mid-1980s. Police departments love the asset forfeiture laws. It’s like money in the bank.

It costs the property owner on average $10,000 in legal fees to get his property back. The cops kept $11,000. That makes good economic sense. Do the math.

Just don’t count the cost of the public’s loss of trust in the criminal justice system. That doesn’t count. Doubt me? Ask the dog.

Minnesota Waitress Sues After Police Seize $12,000 'Tip'


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Struggling Minnesota Waitress Sues After Police Seize $12,000 Tip - ABC News



Waitress Gets $12,000 Tip. She Tells Cops. Cops Keep $11,000.

Waitress Gets $12,000 Tip Back from Police

Police Allow Waitress to Keep $12,000 Tip

By COLLEEN CURRY
April 6, 2012

A waitress who was given a $12,000 tip by a patron, only to lose it days later to a police drug investigation, has finally been declared the rightful owner of the cash.

Stacy Knutson, a waitress at the Fryn' Pan restaurant in Moorhead, Minn., said she was working a late-night shift when a patron left a to-go container from another restaurant on the table. Knutson followed the woman to her car, offering to give the box back, but the customer refused.

"No I am good, you keep it," the woman said, according to court papers filed on Knutson's behalf.

Knutson opened the container when she returned to the restaurant and found $12,000 cash in rolled up bills. Worried about where the money came from, Knutson contacted the local police.

"It caused suspicion with her what the history of this money was. It's always a good thing to contact the police department -- we're not making it any worse, we're here to help," said Moorhead police spokesman Lt. Tory Jacobson.

Knutson, in her lawsuit, noted that she did "the right thing" by turning the money over to police despite having a five children she was helping to support on her salary as a waitress.

"We do everything we can to make ends meet, but often times everything is not covered," she said in the lawsuit. "Even though I desperately needed the money as my husband and I have five children, I feel I did the right thing by calling the Moorhead Police."

The Moorhead police opened an investigation to try and find where the money came from, Jacobson said, noting first that the money gave off an overwhelming smell of marijuana.

"Immediately as a human, you're able to smell marijuana on the money, so to confirm, we have a canine do a confirmation sniff. The dog gave a positive indication of narcotics residue, and so now investigators are looking into a narcotics investigation. We have to seize the money and put it into evidence," Jacobson explained.

While the police seized and investigated the money, Knutson and her attorney began wondering when Knutson would ever get the money back. The police told Knutson that if no one had claimed the money within 90 days, it would be hers, so after 90 days, they began asking the police to hand the cash over.

"After 90 days, they were inquiring how do we get money, and as police, we're informing them that it's drug-seized money, so there's a process for us to be able to get that released, and that process is court," Jacobson said.

Knutson and her attorney were advised to file a lawsuit for the money so that a judge could grant the police department permission to turn the $12,000 back over to Jacobson, the rightful owner. Knutson filed the suit earlier this week, and with pressure from the police department to hear the case quickly, a judge ruled Thursday that the money was hers.

By 2 p.m. Thursday, Jacobson was once again in possession of her $12,000 tip, and the Moorhead police investigation of the drug money was considered a closed case.

Knutson and her attorney did not return calls for comment.

"The right thing was done," Jacobson said today.

Waitress Gets $12,000 Tip Back From Police - ABC News