Law enforcement does this a lot more than people would like to think. Happened to me in Utah on I-80 just outside SLC in 2010. Highway patrol took $11k from me. Pulled me over because they claimed they couldn’t read my temporary registration tags in the back window which was a lie. Asked me if I had any money in the car so I told them I did, was all the money I had as I was moving across the country. They brought a dog out which then conveniently alerted to where I told them my money was. They then tore my car apart for an hour looking for whatever else. Escorted me to a nearby fire station where I was interrogated for 3 hours and accused of being a drug trafficker. Left without my money. Took 2 years to get anything back, which after paying a lawyer was about $7k less. Pretty much ruined my life for those two years. The corruption involves everyone involved, the cops, the lawyers, the judges. Sometimes feds get involved and get a cut. They all split the money. The cops pay off the judges with the stuff they steal. My lawyer told me usually she cuts a deal with the cops and she splits her fee with them but they didn’t do that with me. This guy in the article got special treatment, maybe because he’s a veteran or maybe because it got to be national news, but 99.9% of the time it takes years to get your money back and you lose half of it to a lawyer. A lot of people don’t even attempt to get their money back too, thinking it’s not worth the effort.