Ten Years in Jail or Give Up Your F-150 — Which is Worse?
One wayward driver got a double-whammy by getting 10 years in the clink and having his prized F-150 taken away. Here’s his cautionary tale…
If you were given the choice between either suffering a 10-year prison sentence or having to give up your Ford F-150 truck, which would you choose? Which punishment is more severe? Well, for one wayward Texan, he had no choice but to suffer both tragedies. Why? Well, it has a lot to do with something called crystal meth, 14 grams of it, actually, which the police say they found in his truck when he was busted for something else altogether: stealing.
That’s when the lawbreaking bad boy and his family learned about what law enforcement officials call “civil asset forfeiture,” which led to his F-150 being taken away by the po-po.
‘[He] is doing over a decade in the clink, and so do we need a Ford F-150, too?’
“That imperfect guy is doing over a decade in the clink, and so do we need a Ford F-150, too?” the driver’s lawyer, Steve Jumes, ponders in an interview with Texas’ KERA News. Jume is helping the truck owner’s family negotiate a buy back with the police.
According to the report, the driver’s wife says she wasn’t totally surprised that her husband, who has been in and out of jail, bought drugs. But she claims that the civil asset forfeiture system is unfair and is punishing her entire family for her husband’s crime by taking away the family vehicle.
Quick someone bring in the violins. It’s a sad story, but one that could have had even worse consequences when a truck built like a tank is being maneuvered by someone who may be impaired by narcotics. Plus, there was a very easy way to avoid risking being forced to part with the family’s F-150: Don’t do drugs, and try to avoid stealing other folks’ property.
Or buy a Chevy truck instead, because we assume that the pain of separation of losing one of those is not nearly as painful as losing a Ford F-150.
