4 ms·
It happened to me. I was flying out of San Francisco once on an international flight. And at SFO some of the international terminals go through these long corri
by throwaway15236 11y ago
It happened to me. I was flying out of San Francisco once on an international flight.
And at SFO some of the international terminals go through these long corridors to connect to that moveable tunnel that connects to a plane.
I was fixing some bug on my laptop and decided to wait till the last minute to board (though I was sitting right infront of the check-in desk).
When I went past the check-in desk and into the corridor, two police officers approached me and asked me if they could ask a few questions.
It felt suspicious right away why they were stopping me as there were hardly any people around - there was no one behind me, and everyone had already gone through the corridor.
They took me aside into a small room and asked me where I was travelling to and for what purpose. But then they repeated
a number of times that it's illegal to carry more than $10,000 in cash and if I was carrying over that amount and that if I was it would have to be confiscated.
I told them I wasn't and I think I only had less than $500 in my wallet. They went through my wallet, went through my bag pack, even flipped
through my Clojure book and then they let me go. But I kept having that feeling that something didn't feel right. Later I wished I had asked for the officers names or if that would have gotten me into trouble with them.
- ourmandave 11y agoIt's not illegal to carry cash, no matter how much.
- rev_bird 11y agoI believe there are import/export restrictions on international flights.
- ourmandave 11y agoI missed the intl' flight part. =( I was think of interstate travel.
- gozur88 11y agoIs it illegal, or is it just that you have to declare it?
- bostonpete 11y agoNot according to snopes: http://www.snopes.com/business/money/10000.asp http://www.snopes.com/business/money/10000.asp
- thedufer 11y agoDid you read that link? It says you must report entering/leaving the country with more than $10k. Sounds like that's what's being described.
- aidenn0 11y agoHowever it's also not illegal for them to confiscate the money from you with the only reason for suspicion is the amount of cash.
- triplesec 11y agoHowever, getting that cash back is nigh on impossible because the 'offense' is allegedly perpetrated by the cash, not by you. The law is an ass. Especially when it has anything to do with the 'war on drugs'.
- aidenn0 11y agoI agree. Every way the government has of depriving you of property without legitimate recourse is BS.
- samstave 11y agoDid they keep the <$500?
- jessaustin 11y agoHaha, paperwork sucks. They have to value their time appropriately!
- MattyRad 11y agoI think the point of the story was that the police suspected him of carrying a lot of cash, and they were fishing for it, but didn't find enough to confiscate. Correct me if I'm wrong OP.
- throwaway15236 11y agoThat's correct. If you're the last person to board a flight as its about to leave, and the police had found any amount of substantial cash on me and confiscated it, it would have made it a pretty difficult process for me to find and recover that cash from them afterwards - legal process and all.
- veidr 11y agoIt is not illegal[1] to carry more than $10,000 (talking US law here) but you do have to report it when you take it across the border, and if you don't, it can legitimately be seized per the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act of 1970. However, in many (most?) parts of the USA, you are vulnerable to having the cash seized by police any time you are carrying cash. (Typically this only happens with a large amount.) This is insane, but it is the reality today. Theoretically, you may recover the money via the legal process, but this may not actually work, and in any event will very often cost more in legal fees than was seized. [1]: http://www.snopes.com/business/money/10000.asp http://www.snopes.com/business/money/10000.asp