R
royr
Guest
On the way back from a weekend in Mexico, I was pulled over at 3am by a Louisianna sheriff. He said my licence plate was dirty and he was unable to read it. He looked at the plate, asked for my licence, and asked where we had been. (My wife and a friend were with me.) I told him, and he asked if we had bought any prescription drugs, which we hadn't. We had one bottle of Kahlua, properly stamped and taxed at customs. He asked if he could "look around" in the back of the truck. Not seeing much choice in the matter, I agreed. He asked who my companions were, and then asked my wife (in the back seat) for her licence, which she showed him. He started looking through our few shopping bags and our luggage. Then he "asked" my wife and friend to get out of the truck so he could see what was in there. As we stood outside shivering, he rummaged through the inside of the truck. Afterwards , he said he was going to have his dog go over the truck "to save time." The dog did, but didn't seem too thrilled. The officer had to hold the dog's head to the truck so he would sniff; no reaction other than boredom that we could see. However, the officer claimed that the dog had "reacted" by the truck bed, so he ordered me to remove my spare from under the truck and then got his cordless drill to remove my bedliner. He found nothing, but he searched through the truck again and then apologized for the 90 minute "inconvenience". Then he got in his car and drove off, leaving us in the dark with the truck liner off and our bags scattered. Is this legal? And can we send him the bill for having our truck liner reinstalled? Not everyone who goes to Mexico is a crimainal; this hardly seems like probable cause for a search.