Oky doky
Here's my story.
First off i cant reveal exact location of this incident. The regulars on here know by now that i stick to the midwest and the southern locations.
My car is a 15 year old car, gets good mileage, a very unassuming car. Nothing fancy smancy. I pack clothes for 3 weeks, just in case i find something good that requires me to stay. I carry 3 suitcases, tools in case of breakdowns. A blanket , pillow in case a double shift happens and i dont have a room yet and have to snooze in the car for 3 or 4 hrs till i can get a room. This is a hatchback car so you can see in through the hatchback.
I have been on the road for 8 days, so things tend to get a little unorganized in the car, more than i like at times.
I'm about 3 hrs into a drive to the next joint on a interstate. I have noticed on the whole trip alot and i mean alot of cops out and about, more than the usual amount. On this stretch, we are talking i passed 5 or6 cops already. By cops i mean sheriffs, local cops, and hwypatrol.
So up ahead of me i see 3 sheriff cars do a u turn through the median and are up ahead of me. Me and another car pass 2 of them because they slow to get up to speed limit. I use my blinker to go around the cop. But immediately he speeds up and is behind me..WELL crap, my out of state plates, maybe 4 states away from this one, are gonna get me profiled. COOL...
First thing was asked was i "i noticed you didnt use your singal to change lanes. And this is absoulute "bullsheet" I did, i mean come on i just passed a cop!!!...
Next thing where ya going sir? I came from here and going to here. Vacation? Yea kind and looking for work.
Drivers lisence, ins. etc.,,,, okay here it is.
Runs the lisence, and come back asks me to step out of the car. OH GREAT!!!!!
I cant get into my personal particulars with registration of my car, and my wife, and addresses ,, but it is a little complicated. So he was having a problem with that.
"Where have you been, how long etc. I get asked this by 3 of the cops at different times. So they are looking the car over pretty good.
AND here it comes ." sir we would like to search your car"? My response, sorry i cant allow that, on advice from my lawyer. "ok well we have the right to bring our dog in and if he "hits " on the car we are allowed to search. Yea i know.....
Do what ya gotta do....So they bring dog in , ..... Now 4 cop cars....lol
Before the search they ask" do you have any weapons, guns , knives, drugs....." No , no , no.....NEXT question " do you have any cash in the car????" WELL HERE WE GO!!!!!!!!
At this point i already know its to the sheriffs station and a full blow search and they gotta find out what the hell is going on.
AAHHHH yes sir i have about 4 on me and another 5 in a suit case. "WHAT" !!!! Lets see whats on ya. So they count it down, only 3800. So now the dog is brought around the car............ruff, rugg, 2 hits.........Mind you i have never ever had anything to do with drugs , nor that car.....i've had it since new!!!!
Okay so they start searching,,,,,,he finds the other 5. They count it down in front of the camera, 2 guys do it......So more searching.........and eventually in my other suit case another 10 is found...OKy doaky..........Off to the station we go...
AT this point it has only been about 45 minutes. Hotter than hell out!!!
Now mind you .......ALL these guys are very respectful, professional, their behavior was exceptional!!!!
So into the jail, a smaller town sheriffs dept.
About an hour later, in comes the DEA agent for them. Bring me into a room, and interstingly another cop is reading a paper in there and gets up to leave. But the dea guys say " naw stay, no problem" So i'm thinking this is a good thing.
First thing DEA says is, well "(my name)" .... We went through your car, and found all your paper work and we are almost conviced you have nothing to do with drugs.
Next words were " we went through your paperwork in you suitcase and my GOD you visit alot of casinos!!!!!! So we are assumming by your all your irs records, player cards, and strategy cards....your a professional gambler???? Yes????
At this point i"m like wow, wow, wow......IT WORKED.....
What i'm talking about is i purposefully got all my casino related stuff together and put in one area of my suitcase....
So evertthing is cool and we begin chatting about drug runners, cash , my AP career etc......
But one issue he needs to resolve...." where did the money come from" I had loose cash on me and a loose 5 in one suit case. But the other 10 was rubber banded in another case...
I tell him i take 10 to start with which is the rubber banded stuff. And the rest was made at the stores. So he says receipts are nice, to prove where it came from.. WEll i say i can rattle off every casino i have been to and every casino in the midwest if you like.
So i proceed to tell him of the 10 i had been to, but i cant prove it, alot of this was on table games and i play unrated.
So all in all 3hrs later i'm on the road.
Anything over 10g......is of concern to them.
Oh yea,,, also they ran me through NCIC and i was clean, but a casino related incident of 25 years ago was on there. So, my question was will this incident be on there now.. ABSOLUTELY!!!!!! Ya i say!!!!!!!
So what i learned is what Sucker has said on another thread.......Pack a bag with nothing but casino stuff, cash, cards, flyers, books, etc.
I am using a briefcase , it will have all that plus a note stateing i am a professional gambler, i carry cash, here is my lawyers number, and PLEASE call and verify through NCIC that i have been through this before.
So next time i am pulled over i can just state what i am really doing out here on the freeway......
Another interesting thing he told me is that the drug guys arent using casinos to launder money much anymore, like they used to. ONe of the biggest way of moving cash is with Walmart type Visa cards, 5g on each ....They caught a guy in their state with 91 of them on him, but he had a very long record of this type stuff.
Well if i think of anything else i will add later.....
Damn this is alot of typing........whew...
Feel free to ask question as i probably forgot alot of stuff.
Sucker obviously has been through this alot it looks like.....
A few of you guys know how much mileage i put on in a year, so its just a matter of time before you get profiled with an out of state tag, white guy,..blah blah blah
So obviously this is a pretty scary thing if you have never been through it. Lucky these guys had their act together and used common sense. I guess experienceing this a few times really helps in handling the situation. I just hope i can handle a stop that doesnt go as smoothly as this one.
Machinist