Motorists Illegally Detained For Paying With Large Bills

Recently we talked about a cop's ignorance of the law and paying with a perfectly legal $2 bill could land you in prison. In Florida, toll collectors illegally detained motorists for paying with bills they deemed too large. Toll takers even flagged and detained drivers paying with bills as small as $20 based on racial profiling.

The program came to light when a man who tried to pay a $1 toll with a hundred-dollar bill, and was told that he would need to provide his personal information in order to be allowed to pass through the tollbooth. He realized that this kind of detainment is illegal, and began corresponding with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).

The Department of Transportation claimed that there was no policy requiring toll collectors to take the information of motorists paying with large bills. However, it turned out that there was. Now the man is planning a class-action lawsuit. It was a rather typical government program in that it cost the government double the amount of the fake currency it purportedly caught:

The Department also spent $32,000 on forms used to catch the $16,000 in funny money. The department also says in e-mails, the program will help law enforcement catch counterfeiters.

However, as [the detained man] discovered, in the 885 times the D.O.T. claims it received counterfeit money, not one time was it referred to any law enforcement agency of any description.