If you have a secret compartment in Ohio... make sure it's got a bible in it.

I was playing devil's sidekick.

Racer1ab and I have a tendency to look at things from multiple directions when it comes to legal issues. While we may disagree with them, we try to find a way to go along with it. We have had lengthy discussions on things like this. Just like anything else, you guys educate us in regards to what a reasonable person's response may be.

Some more information from the preliminary hearing.

As reported last week by Reason's Scott Shackford, Norman Gurley, a 30-year old black man, was pulled over on the Ohio Turnpike last week by the Ohio State Highway Patrol. Troopers detained Gurley while searching the car he was driving for narcotics. They didn't find any drugs in the car, but did find a secret compartment they say is used for transporting drugs—which has been a felony since 2012, and could land Gurley in prison for 18 months.

Not much happened in the actual preliminary hearing, with judge Thomas Januzzi binding the case over to the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas to be heard in front of a grand jury. But after the hearing, Gurley's attorney, Myron Watson, took time to provide further information about the case, leading to some surprising—or sadly, perhaps not-so-surprising—revelations.

Read the rest here

http://reason.com/archives/2013/11/27/court-hearing-raises-more-questions-abou

DWB. If I had not seen it in person, I would have never believed it actually happened in today's world.

A good point that was made.. how is a Georga Man supposed to know about a felony law in Ohio? I know they love the "ignorance is no excuse" when it comes to laws.. but who would have thought that having a car with a secret compartment would be illegal?

JamesMcD wrote: What about those magnetic boxes that you put an extra key in and stick to your frame?

Those suck. Sure, they hold the keys to the frame just fine for 15-20 years, but then one day, they vanish, never to be seen again.

On a related note, if anyone finds 2 keys to a ford E-150 somewhere off of I-90 between Janesville Wisconsin and Boston, PM me.

mad_machine wrote: DWB. If I had not seen it in person, I would have never believed it actually happened in today's world. A good point that was made.. how is a Georga Man supposed to know about a felony law in Ohio? I know they love the "ignorance is no excuse" when it comes to laws.. but who would have thought that having a car with a secret compartment would be illegal?

I don't know - but my new smuggling plans for Ohio involve a white guy in a late model rental ford with the trunk full to the brim with crystal, tailing a couple black guys in trap cars with secret compartments full of collector baseball cards.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

Racer1ab wrote: I guess we will just have to agree to disagree. If you've added storage compartments to your track car to hold every last thing you'd need, I bet the cops wouldn't care.

I prefer not to leave the decision about what my stuff is intended for to police. It is none of anyone's business what I choose to hide away unless they have probably cause and a search warrant. No cop who pulled over a car reeking of drugs is going to have trouble getting one. If they find drugs then there is a crime. But... if you got 10 years in prison for smoking a joint because you also had your Burt Bacharach 8-tracks secreted away where people couldn't judge you for your bad taste... that would suck mightily would it not? Rain drops falling on your head aside... There is no reason for a law to be about hidden compartments at all. Drugs are illegal. Secrets are not.

This, god help me if Ohio gets agressive and invades eastern Indiana.......just for that I'm going home to wrap up some powdered sugar and place it in my closet hidden by a book shelf. I might even put a firearm or two in there that lack serial numbers.

I keep promising myself that I will never move to Florida, New York City, California, Atlanta and Ohio.

I'll just leave this federal-level prosecution article here: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/03/alfred-anaya/all/

TLDR: a guy got 24 years in prison for making hidden compartments and refusing to cooperate with the feds. Refusing customers dumb enough to say they were drug runners wasn't enough to keep him out of jail.