American shakedown: Police won't charge you, but they'll grab your money

I carry $400 with me at all times. In jugs, filled with pennys. You want to steal my money, cop? Lift it yourself.

Here's my question: why is someone dumb enough to carry thousands of dollars in cash like that? Sure it's every American's right to do so but it's just... dumb. If you get robbed (and I mean by the average jerk, not the confiscation mentioned here) you are screwed, you won't get it back. It's also a good incentive for someone to get rid of you, ya know?

If I'm going out of town I keep some cash for emergencies but damn hauling $5k etc around.

If I'm going to buy a car etc I ask about checks etc if they demand cash well hold on there lil' fella we are gonna discuss this before I ever show up...

I can deal with all the BS politics today, really, I can. This though? Good god damn does it fire me up. To make myself laugh a little about it, what if 50 cent got pulled over?

In reply to Curmudgeon:

Sometimes you just need cash to get a deal done. We went camping last month, and I saw a bike for sale online that wasn't too far out of the way (but 7 hrs from home). The price was right and it had been for sale for a few months, so I carried $2k around in my pocket for a week, and saved $1500. I ALWAYS take cash when looking at a car or bike.

We're doing a Christmas shopping run over the border next month. I'll use my credit cards and bring a stack of Canadian tire money for my wallet

Curmudgeon wrote: Here's my question: why is someone dumb enough to carry thousands of dollars in cash like that? Sure it's every American's right to do so but it's just... dumb. If you get robbed (and I mean by the average jerk, not the confiscation mentioned here) you are screwed, you won't get it back. It's also a good incentive for someone to get rid of you, ya know? If I'm going out of town I keep some cash for emergencies but damn hauling $5k etc around. If I'm going to buy a car etc I ask about checks etc if they demand cash well hold on there lil' fella we are gonna discuss this before I ever show up...

Bought my wife's car with cash. Found it in Birmingham on Autotrader. Ask was $11k. Wanting to be prepared to buy if it checked out, I thus proceeded to travel inter-state with $11k in $100 bills. Car was decent but not perfect, offered $9500, settled at $10k, and gave the seller $10k in cash. All 100% legal and legitimate, and yet I was fearful of the cops should I be caught up in a random roadblock or something. That ain't right.

As for checks, I sure as hell wouldn't take a check from some random dude, and I wouldn't expect someone to take mine. Cash is king.

Yeah, I get that. It's why I said if big $ are gonna be involved it will be discussed ahead of time, maybe we can meet at a time when I can go to the bank etc. I just don't like carrying that much cash.

Call me weird, but a part of me would get off on carrying a large amount of hundos...in a roll.

"Wiseguys don't carry their money in a wallet. Wiseguys carry their money in a roll."

So do carnies.

I wonder what's going to happen when Gas Monkey gets topped?

In reply to EastCoastMojo:

But not hundos.

Appleseed wrote: I carry $400 with me at all times. In jugs, filled with pennys. You want to steal my money, cop? Lift it yourself.

I demand proof.

Edit: That's a touch over 220lbs (100kg even) of pennies.

No way. You might stop by, and the 4Runner is really easy to break into.

Zomby Woof wrote: In reply to Curmudgeon: Sometimes you just need cash to get a deal done. We went camping last month, and I saw a bike for sale online that wasn't too far out of the way (but 7 hrs from home). The price was right and it had been for sale for a few months, so I carried $2k around in my pocket for a week, and saved $1500. I ALWAYS take cash when looking at a car or bike. We're doing a Christmas shopping run over the border next month. I'll use my credit cards and bring a stack of Canadian tire money for my wallet

I agree with ZW.

I recently sold 2 cars and was trying to buy a new-to-me one, so every time I went out of town I had all of the proceeds with me in cash, in case a I found a good deal. That way I could make the deal on the spot.

I was nervous as E36 M3 all the time with that much money though and I wasn't in the US.

I've bought cars a few times for over 5K and used cash. It helps negotiations but yeah, when I get that much out of the bank I feel much more "aware" of my surroundings and up my carry status. (generally from car to person)

Yeah, I have done that too but man it makes a fella nervous. Particularly when out in East Bumfuq, Nowhere USA dealing with someone I have never seen before. At that point I could care less about cops but much more about the locals (cue Dueling Banjos). Wasn't that long ago down in Charleston a guy was murdered for, IIRC, $4k in cash; he was buying a truck, the so called sellers beat him to death and stole the money.

That's why if I am planning to buy a car I will clarify with the seller ahead of time that no I won't be carrying a huge wad of cash. I might carry X amount (maybe $1k), then the rest comes from the bank. If they can't deal with that, well so sorry. It also helps to know ahead of time about titles and crap like that.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: Thanks war on drugs, now even Canadians hate us.

Not really...they have hated y'all for a long time!To anyone living outside the fishbowl its pretty obvious that the lunatics are running the asylum. Just keep in mind that Canada is always 10 years behind the USA, so the same E36 M3s gonna grow here.

Anytime a Canadian gets on your case about the Gansterization of the nation, just ask them about Montreal.

I don't know about you, but I trust the gangsters more than I trust the cops.

How do we get the cops to stop the lawbreaking? It doesn't seem so easy to do.

Mr_Clutch42 wrote: How do we get the cops to stop the lawbreaking? It doesn't seem so easy to do.

Catching them in the act is about the only way, but then you need the courts, too. And above all, you need a populace that gives an e36m3. Sadly, most people don't care until it actually affects them personally.

This is why we should all stand up and yell "What the berkleying berkley?" whenever anyone gets arrested for videotaping police interactions. Someone has to watch the watchers.

And know your rights. Know about Terry stops, Delaware v. Prouse, and Hiibel v. Nevada before you deal with the police, not after.

I'm less angry about stuff like this and more pissed about the guy they're going to try and charge with the death penalty for killing a cop. The cop in question of course, was kicking in his door at 3 am during a no knock raid which resulted in no drugs being found.

In reply to Grizz:

Be angry at the root of the problem, why all this stuff was allowed to ever come to be, the drug war.

In reply to Kenny_McCormic:

9/11. Turrists. Muh Patriot Act. Drug War.

It's a combination of E36 M3 that irritates me to no end. It's pretty bad when my first thought about dead cops anymore is "good".

All this no knock, warrantless searching, detaining for no reason, operator up bullE36 M3 needs to end.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: In reply to Grizz: Be angry at the root of the problem, why all this stuff was allowed to ever come to be, the drug war.

Truth.

I never understood the whole "war on" thing. We are bad at war.. last war we won was WW2.. we lost the Korean and Vietnam Conflicts, The politicians did a real bad job of managing Iraq and Afghanistan (not going to go into why we were there) and we certainly lost the war on drugs and terrorists.. so why do we keep calling things "a war"?

Will wrote:

Kenny_McCormic wrote: In reply to Grizz: Be angry at the root of the problem, why all this stuff was allowed to ever come to be, the drug war.

Truth.

Partial truth. The drug war was just a better disguise for the government's domestic spy machine than the one it had before. It really started with J Edgar Hoover's FBI collecting/detaining/eradicating "subversives" of various types throughout the whole middle of the 20th century.