Customs took his truck without charging him with a crime. Two years later, he's getting it back.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

No matter what your political outlook is, you should be wary of civil asset forfeiture.

Retweeted by David Fahrenthold: https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold

Customs took his truck without charging him with a crime. Two years later, he’s finally getting it back.

Link to tweet

Customs took his truck without charging him with a crime. Two years later, he’s finally getting it back.

By Christopher Ingraham October 20 at 7:00 AM

Customs and Border Protection is returning a Kentucky man's truck, more than two years after it was seized because Border Patrol officers found five bullets in the truck's center console.

In September 2015, Customs officers seized the pickup truck belonging to Gerardo Serrano after they found the bullets when he attempted to cross the border into Mexico. The agency maintained that the bullets were “munitions of war” and that transporting them to Mexico was illegal.

Serrano says he simply forgot that he left the small ammunition magazine in his truck's center console. Serrano, who holds a concealed carry permit, did not have a gun or any other weapons with him at the time.

Customs never officially charged Serrano with a crime. They never gave him a day in court to fight the allegations against him. But they held on to his truck anyway, under the controversial practice of civil asset forfeiture, which allows authorities to seize and in many cases keep cash and property from individuals never convicted of any crime.
....

Christopher Ingraham writes about politics, drug policy and all things data. He previously worked at the Brookings Institution and the Pew Research Center. Follow @_cingraham

[Pope George Ringo II]

1. On the other hand,

Mexico would have messed him up for taking ammunition into their country. Border Patrol got way out of hand and freakishly draconian here, but this could actually have been worse.

[OregonBlue]

2. True. But all they had to do was take the ammo and tell him to be more careful because

Mexico takes this stuff very seriously. They did it out of greed.

[Pope George Ringo II]

3. Definitely greed

If I'm completely open, the thing which surprises me most is that they hadn't sold the truck by the time he got some form of redress. I'm also a little unclear on how a guy from Kentucky makes it all the way to the Mexican border without ever thinking he needs to do a serious check of his vehicle for contraband.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

4. In the words of my ex-neighbor and waitress from Brooklyn...

...'Who are they, the f*&king nazi gestapo?'

This is just another steaming pile that needs overhaul.