Originally Posted by da_guy
OK not to beat this to death but anyone with a shred of common sense will figure out a woman carrying $47K in cash is doing it for illegal reasons. There is no reason why anyone would need to carry that much money in cash unless the transaction they were embarking upon was of an illegal nature or if the transaction itself is legal, they are avoiding taxes on the transaction. I know in this forum the perception is that a TSA's IQ is 56, but even someone that mentally challenged can figure out $47K in cash is being used for no good.
It's not the point that the TSA was involved (well, not entirely), but that someone had their property confiscated simply over a suspicion. If you bought a red Corvette, do you think the police would be justified in confiscating it because they suspected you might be using it to speed?
Yes, I can see where there are few "good" reasons to be carrying that much cash, but there is this thing in the USA that allows for "innocent until proven guilty." This seizure, along with many like it, place the burden of proof not on the government but on the accused, and that's downright illegal. Take for example the idiot who won that $300 million+ lottery in WV a couple of years ago... he is known to carry $100k+ in cash and negotiable bonds, etc. Should the cops confiscate his money just because he likes the sight of so much green? Heck no... but he does deserve what he gets when everyone tries breaking into his truck to get at that briefcase he left in the back seat...
There are countless cases that go well abroad of the TSA and travel safety & security where the government has confiscated personal property and forced the individual to sue, hassle, haggle, and otherwise proove they had no "improper" intent to retrieve what was rightfully theirs. At least in this particular case, they said the woman will get interest on the money when (if) she gets if back; there are cases where the police confiscated guns from locked safes when called over a possible domestic dispute, and then went on to destroy them before the owner could get through the legal hassles of getting them back, etc.