Man tries to go to LA with $16k in cash money to make a music video, DEA robs em

King Ghidorah
King Ghidorah Members Posts: 917 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited May 2015 in The Social Lounge
It happened, Rivers said, to him on April 15 as he was traveling on Amtrak from Dearborn, Mich., near his hometown of Romulus, Mich., to Los Angeles to fulfill his dream of making a music video. Rivers, in an email, said he had saved his money for years, and his mother and other relatives scraped together the rest of the $16,000.

Rivers said he carried his savings in cash because he has had problems in the past with taking out large sums of money from out-of-state banks.

A DEA agent boarded the train at the Albuquerque Amtrak station and began asking various passengers, including Rivers, where they were going and why. When Rivers replied that he was headed to LA to make a music video, the agent asked to search his bags. Rivers complied.

Rivers was the only passenger singled out for a search by DEA agents – and the only black person on his portion of the train, Pancer said.

In one of the bags, the agent found the cash, still in the Michigan bank envelope.

“I even allowed him to call my mother, a military veteran and (hospital) coordinator, to corroborate my story,” Rivers said. “Even with all of this, the officers decided to take my money because he stated that he believed that the money was involved in some type of narcotic activity.”

Rivers was left penniless, his dream deferred.

“These officers took everything that I had worked so hard to save and even money that was given to me by family that believed in me,” Rivers said in his email. “I told (the DEA agents) I had no money and no means to survive in Los Angeles if they took my money. They informed me that it was my responsibility to figure out how I was going to do that.”

Sean Waite, the agent in charge for the DEA in Albuquerque, said he could not comment on the Rivers case because it is ongoing. He disputed allegations that Rivers was targeted because of his race.

Waite said that in general DEA agents look for “indicators” such as whether the person bought an expensive one-way ticket with cash, if the person is traveling from or to a city known as a hot spot for drug activity, if the person’s story has inconsistencies or if the large sums of money found could have been transported by more conventional means.

“We don’t have to prove that the person is guilty,” Waite said. “It’s that the money is presumed to be guilty.”
http://www.abqjournal.com/580107/news/dea-agents-seize-16000-from-aspiring-music-video-producer.html

My pops once had 6k in cash taken from him by the DEA, took like 8 months for the investigation to end, and ? was like "Only $890 of it wasn't drug money, good luck" ? my Ps2 got pawned getting them funds. This nugga won't get no where near 16k back by the time they done ? his funds
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Comments

  • babelipsss
    babelipsss Members Posts: 2,517 ✭✭✭✭✭
    That guy was actually lucky the DEA took his money. At the very least he might recoup some of it. The wolves out in LA would have ripped him off plus a couple of other things. He seems a little naive. They must live way out in the boonies.
  • deadeye
    deadeye Members Posts: 22,884 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2015
    As ? up as it is, I almost don't have any sympathy for him.


    That's some dumb, ignorant, hoodrat ? to waste your entire savings on a music video.


    I know things like this happen in real life, but.....considering the narrative......I hope the story is fake.


    Some of the circumstances don't make sense.


    For instance, why did he have to go to LA to shoot a video?


    And by train on top of that.


    Why not take a plane?


    Was dude afraid of flying or something?


    Hopefully something positive will come out of this and he'll have a better perspective of what his priorities should be.
  • Carthaginian
    Carthaginian Members Posts: 1,409 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Yeah. It's generally dumb to carry around more than a few hundred in cash at a time. It's the physical manifestation of a risky asset. You lose it, it's gone.

    But...shooting a music video in LA? Exactly how did he think the production process worked? Music Videos cost thousands to complete...and that's not even the good ones. He was probably just too naive in the end.
  • CapitalB
    CapitalB Members Posts: 24,556 ✭✭✭✭✭
    deadeye wrote: »
    As ? up as it is, I almost don't have any sympathy for him.


    That's some dumb, ignorant, hoodrat ? to waste your entire savings on a music video.


    I know things like this happen in real life, but.....considering the narrative......I hope the story is fake.


    Some of the circumstances don't make sense.


    For instance, why did he have to go to LA to shoot a video?


    And by train on top of that.


    Why not take a plane?


    Was dude afraid of flying or something?


    Hopefully something positive will come out of this and he'll have a better perspective of what his priorities should be.

    u cant travel wit 16k on a plane..

    that sayin..
    ? was movin somethin. lol
  • Cinco
    Cinco Guests, Members, Writer, Content Producer Posts: 5,097 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Lol them ppl ? as a mug
  • stackmaster 313
    stackmaster 313 Members Posts: 1,347 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Cant have ? period if it was 6K they will take it. Dont travel with large sums overnight it to your destination. Romulus is like 15 minutes from me crazy story happens everyday though sad really.
  • shtoopid
    shtoopid Members Posts: 2,546 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2015
    damn, i almost felt sorry for bro at first, but this nah, lol. "i've had trouble withdrawing large amounts at out of state banks" what the hell is a non drug dealer doing to need to withdraw thousands in cash in various different states? this ? doesn't have a debit card, or a checkbook? he could've easily paid for his "video" as needed throughout the process. even if he was retarted, no way his whole family backed this ? ? and no one told him not to travel alone to la with $16,000 cash.
  • 9TRAY
    9TRAY Members Posts: 6,830 ✭✭✭✭✭
  • h8rhurta
    h8rhurta Members Posts: 1,119 ✭✭✭✭✭
    ? is terrible. The money is guilty? They give any excuse to take your ? and knowing that you don't have the means to fight back, they get to keep it.
  • SneakDZA
    SneakDZA Members Posts: 11,223 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2015
    yeah even though he was clearly going to cop... confiscating money because you think it's going to be used for a crime is basically stealing and should be illegal as ? . they could have just followed the dude and got him and the seller but they just want the free easy cash.

    it's basically just a legalized shakedown.
  • S2J
    S2J Members Posts: 28,458 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Shout out to The Wire, season 1 or 2, the episode when Ashy Larry was Clay Davis' driver lmao they took his cash and said he neded to be able to explain it to get it back. Before that episode i did not know police could do this.
  • EmM HoLLa.
    EmM HoLLa. Members Posts: 3,255 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I keep 20 in the pocket..
    We talkin a buck 80 if the Bentley the topic (that grey poupon!)

    we_fly_high281x211.jpg
  • RobCoLife
    RobCoLife Members Posts: 1,376 ✭✭✭✭✭
    ? should have got GoPro cam and Adobe After Effects CC. Or hit up his local city college for students majoring in film.
  • EyeofAsaru
    EyeofAsaru Members Posts: 1,853 ✭✭✭✭✭
    That's a expensive ass lesson to learn about these crooks

    However I aint buying that music video ? ...with 16k you can buy your own equipment and shoot your own video..why do you need to go all the way to la for that?
  • 700
    700 Members Posts: 14,496 ✭✭✭✭✭
    deadeye wrote: »
    As ? up as it is, I almost don't have any sympathy for him.


    That's some dumb, ignorant, hoodrat ? to waste your entire savings on a music video.


    I know things like this happen in real life, but.....considering the narrative......I hope the story is fake.


    Some of the circumstances don't make sense.


    For instance, why did he have to go to LA to shoot a video?


    And by train on top of that.


    Why not take a plane?


    Was dude afraid of flying or something?


    Hopefully something positive will come out of this and he'll have a better perspective of what his priorities should be.

    Why you even care what he was doing with his money

    Tell me why these crackas took his money but didn't take him to jail

    Tell me that
  • fuc_i_look_like
    fuc_i_look_like Members Posts: 9,190 ✭✭✭✭✭
    that's a pretty ? up story. But dude's story is so ? , it's hard 2 feel sorry for him. Aint no reason in the world to travel with $16,000 on you. Having difficulty withdrawing money from an out of state bank don't even make sense.
  • 7figz
    7figz Members Posts: 15,294 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Talk about missing the point.

  • Rum Middleton
    Rum Middleton Members Posts: 5,265 ✭✭✭✭✭
    ? sound dumb as ? ..I'll wait for more to evolve
  • NoCompetition
    NoCompetition Members Posts: 3,661 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2015
    Thems the rules. You can travel with a few thousand but not that many thousand. Why? I understand why but who cares why those are the rules. Thats For your benefit and safety too. Also why did they pick out that bus and him? Of course he aint gone get into all that. Its possible he just thought he could travel around with a 16,000 dollar bankroll with no good story on how he got it but thats not how it goes. End of discussion (obviously)...now if he can verify things in a way somebody could believe, he may be alright. I aint the only one like "what?" to his story. No need to paint a broad brush of corruption . Save that for instances where it fits more.