Big Tip , Or Drug Deal

[sugarfree irony]

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/356277/

MOORHEAD - For the struggling waitress with five children, the $12,000 left at the table in a to-go box must have seemed too good to be true.

Moorhead police decided it was just that.

Now, the waitress is suing in Clay County District Court, claiming the cash was given to her and police shouldn’t have seized it as drug money.

“The thing that’s sad about it is here’s somebody who truly needs this gift … and now the government is getting in the way of it,” said the woman’s attorney, Craig Richie of Fargo.

Moorhead police Lt. Tory Jacobson said he couldn’t discuss the matter.

“We certainly have an ongoing investigation with it, with suspicion of narcotics or the involvement of narcotics investigators,” he said.

Assistant County Attorney Michelle Lawson also declined to discuss the pending lawsuit.

The Forum isn’t identifying the waitress in order to protect her in case the cash was part of a drug deal.

According to the lawsuit filed three weeks ago:

The waitress was working at the Moorhead Fryn’ Pan when she noticed that a woman had left a to-go box from another restaurant on the table.

The waitress picked it up, followed the woman to her car and tried to give her the box, but the woman replied, “No, I am good; you keep it.”

The waitress thought that was strange, but she agreed and went back inside the restaurant, the lawsuit states. The box felt too heavy to contain only leftovers, so she looked inside and found cash rolled up in rubber bands.

“Even though I desperately needed the money as my husband and I have 5 children, I feel I did the right thing by calling Moorhead Police,” she states in the lawsuit.

Richie said there was no evidence of a drug deal. He said the seizure could discourage people from turning in found money and set a bad precedent.

“That would mean that any money that ever had any drugs on it could be confiscated by the police at any time,” he said. “You know how ridiculous that would be?”

A University of Massachusetts-led study released in 2009 found that up to 90 percent of U.S. paper contained traces of cocaine, according to published reports.

Richie said the financial plight of the waitress and her husband was well-known at their church. He said it’s “far more likely” that someone was trying to make an anonymous donation than it is that a drug deal was going down.

I bet someone is kicking herself for calling the police .

[malq]

No good deed goes unpunished.

It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission.

What they don't know won't hurt them.

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Honesty is for pussies.

[malq]

I have always enjoyed pondering this with people.
You were walking down the street and saw a duffel bag. You stopped and tried to pick it up.
It was heavy. You unzip it a bit and see bricks of Cnotes. Easily 500,000 to a million in there. You can easily get it home.

What do you do? You have 10 seconds to decide before someone else walks up.

[newstarshipsmell]

What do you do? You have 10 seconds to decide before someone else walks up.

Is my bladder full?

[TheMeaningOfItAll]

I have always enjoyed pondering this with people.
You were walking down the street and saw a duffel bag. You stopped and tried to pick it up.
It was heavy. You unzip it a bit and see bricks of Cnotes. Easily 500,000 to a million in there. You can easily get it home.

What do you do? You have 10 seconds to decide before someone else walks up.

Look over my shoulder for John Quinones because that shit has to be a set-up for his damn show "What Would You Do?". That or drop the bag and run.

[biteme]

I have always enjoyed pondering this with people.
You were walking down the street and saw a duffel bag. You stopped and tried to pick it up.
It was heavy. You unzip it a bit and see bricks of Cnotes. Easily 500,000 to a million in there. You can easily get it home.

What do you do? You have 10 seconds to decide before someone else walks up.

Put it in the trunk of the car and forget about it for a while, forgot to turn it in

Cops have no right to take the money, they found no proof of drug deal, They can always clam it's an open investigation because they found nothing and didn't close the case, assholes as usual so is the DA hope they get ass fucked by the judge
Unfortunately the tax payer is the only one that loses out in these lawsuits, not the cops, not the DA

[AngelFire]

If it were me I would take it. If anyone asked about it all I would say is......what money??

[malq]

Ok, so you decide to take it and solve all of your problems with this money. Where are you going to keep it and will you be worried someone might kill you for it? Paranoia might be a problem.

Then there is the problem spending it. Paying cash for everything raises eyebrows. You suddenly move into a nicer apartment and always have cash. That new car you want, You can't pay 35k cash. You can't put it in the bank, what do you do?

[AngelFire]

Ok, so you decide to take it and solve all of your problems with this money. Where are you going to keep it and will you be worried someone might kill you for it? Paranoia might be a problem.

Then there is the problem spending it. Paying cash for everything raises eyebrows. You suddenly move into a nicer apartment and always have cash. That new car you want, You can't pay 35k cash. You can't put it in the bank, what do you do?

I'd go back home and bury it if it were more. But $12k I can easily spend.

[Mare]

Paranoia would not be a problem – who would know I have it?

I’d book a trip overseas and go to a private bank to make a hefty deposit (about half); the rest spread out over the regular foreign bank acct and US ones; pay off my car; pay down my mortgage; fatten up my retirement fund; establish trusts for the kids; buy some shoes and money would be gone! Poof! Like I never had it.

All that said, even though I think I would take it I would be the idiot who calls the cops to report the money.

[Robynne]

Ok, so you decide to take it and solve all of your problems with this money. Where are you going to keep it and will you be worried someone might kill you for it? Paranoia might be a problem.

Then there is the problem spending it. Paying cash for everything raises eyebrows. You suddenly move into a nicer apartment and always have cash. That new car you want, You can't pay 35k cash. You can't put it in the bank, what do you do?

Well, first... the car? I would trade in a junker, and make monthly payments.
Second.... I wouldn't make a move right away either. I would "save" my money to put down on a deposit.
And when you go to the grocery store or another store, you can go from place to place and spend a little here and a little there. It's not hard to blow a bunch of money.

Just my two cents

[newstarshipsmell]

See, there's altogether too many complications that could go badly in this scenario, which no amount of planning will guarantee to overcome. I'd much rather satisfy myself with the right to brag in all honesty that I once pissed away a million bucks in a matter of seconds. Plus, some fucker has to handle all that cash after the fact. And fuck them, whoever they are, cause they got a million bucks and I don't.

[totallytoddler]

When would THAT opportunity ever present itself again? Of course I would take the money. I would rather someone threw it over my wall and into my backyard though...this way no one sees me actually take it. Where would I keep it? In my house...can't exactly make a $500,000 cash deposit now can I???

But that scenerio is as likely to happen as winning the lotto...which..I did not. I even played dammit!

As far as the waitress she is stupid for reporting it...the customer said keep it....I never even would have shown it to anyone at work..that's just stupid. My biggest tip cocktailing was $500....I didn't want to tell anyone..but they knew my customer hit a jackpot and would tip big. Why is everyone so nosey??? MYOB!

It was no one's business ..... if the waitress thought there was nothing wrong with the tip why would she call police? And if the 90 days are up then she should get the money....but if it is drug money would she really want it?
I dunno...I read this on yahoo this morning they were supposed to give it to her if no one claimed it and now they won't.
If I ever found money and turned it in...and it went unclaimed after 30 days...it was MINE!!! Finders keepers!

[AngelFire]

Me too, I wouldn't open my mouth for shit. The only way you would get me to say it is if that money belonged to someone. But if someone gives me a wad of cash, I will take it. You know how many pairs of shoes I can get with that money, not to mention all the chocolate money can buy too???

[biteme]

Ok, so you decide to take it and solve all of your problems with this money. Where are you going to keep it and will you be worried someone might kill you for it? Paranoia might be a problem.

Then there is the problem spending it. Paying cash for everything raises eyebrows. You suddenly move into a nicer apartment and always have cash. That new car you want, You can't pay 35k cash. You can't put it in the bank, what do you do?

Buy a used 35k car have seller put gift on bill of sell and give him an extra couple grand bonus
Actually lot of ways to launder money, lots of cooperative sellers out there, no one wants to pay taxes
but I understand your point, has to be done slow and smart

[biteme]

dam double

[TheMorningStar]

uh...money?

uh...spammer?

[Dakota Valkyrie]

uh...spammer?

uh.... yep. It's their latest tactic. Posting crap that makes little or no sense. Like any of our members are going to go scope out their profiles and click on their "Buy My Junk Enlarger" homepages?

When they get run through the handy dandy Spam-o-matic, it takes care of them. To help us out, please report the posts.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

After the story prompted national headlines, authorities here said Thursday that police will return to the waitress the $12,000 left behind in cash by a Fryn’ Pan customer.

In a news conference Thursday afternoon, Assistant Clay County Attorney Michelle Lawson said the money could not be tied to a criminal investigation, and the waitress would get a check for the $12,000 later in the day.

Although Lawson said the national interest in the story did not affect the end result, she admitted that the overwhelming amount of calls and messages to the police department sped up the process.

“This was pushed forward more quickly than it would have normally been,” she said. “Literally, the dispatch center and the courts were inundated with calls. You can’t run your agency that way.”
[...]

Craig Richie, Knutson’s lawyer, said at the news conference he took the case for free having never seen a similar situation in nearly 40 years of practicing law. He said he client never lost faith about her apparent good fortune, and that her family will likely use the money to pay off bills.

“She believed that God would provide for her no matter what,” he said. “Even throughout this process, she believed that the right thing would happen.”

Knutson said she considered the $12,000 a tip when no one claimed it after 90 days. She filed a lawsuit last month to get the money back from authorities.
[...]

In February, the money was officially administratively forfeited as being associated with controlled substances, Lawson said.

But after police were unable to tie it to a specific crime, it became possible for the money to be returned to Knutson.

“That normally doesn’t happen,” Lawson said. “It’s not normal for us to come up with $12,000 that we can tie to drugs, but we can’t tie to any particular drug dealer or any particular drug deal.”

Once no leads were found and the investigation was considered inactive, Lawson said, the actual cash was deposited “some time ago” into an account.

On Thursday, Lawson and Richie signed a stipulation that allowed Clay County District Court Judge Galen Vaa to sign an order returning the money.

Lawson said the order was signed about 2 p.m., and Richie said the check would likely be delivered to Knutson later Wednesday.

Richie, who said Knutson had been overwhelmed by the attention over the past few days and opted not to attend the news conference, praised her integrity for contacting the police.

Lawson also thanked Knutson for turning in the money, citing public safety concerns involved whenever a person comes into possession of a large amount of cash in suspicious circumstances.

Despite the positive end result, Lawson said the process was tainted by the many negative messages directed at police after the story attracted wide notice.

“This fantastic police department has received more messages and more calls today that are negative and menacing and threatening,” she said. “Shame on people for that.”

http://www.inforum.com/event/article...ublisher_ID/1/

[malq]

http://www.inforum.com/event/article...ublisher_ID/1/

They should give her the cash back.
It should be her decision if she wants to report it as income. With a check she will have to. I bet she never reports it again.

[Lily]

They should give her the cash back.
It should be her decision if she wants to report it as income. With a check she will have to. I bet she never reports it again.

It was a gift. Why should it be classed as income?

Do you have to pay tax on gifts or winnings?

[TheMorningStar]

It was a gift. Why should it be classed as income?

Do you have to pay tax on gifts or winnings?

You betcha!

[Lily]

You betcha!

Gawd!

We don't.

[malq]

Gawd!

We don't.

It's terrible, we even have a death tax. If you die your kids have to pay taxes on anything they inherit.
We don't pay up front in the US like Socialist countries that have a higer tax rate but everything is included. It's a pay as you go system. Extremely inefiecient.