Lowell Woman Suing To Recover Dad's $82,000 Life Savings From Federal Government
LOWELL (CBS) – A Lowell woman is suing the federal government, trying to get her elderly father's life savings back.
Rebecca Brown was travelling through Pittsburgh International Airport last August with the large amount of cash – more than $82,000 – when she was understandably stopped. She said she was taking the money from her 79-year-old father's Pennsylvania home, back to Massachusetts.
"When the DEA agent and the trooper approached me I was embarrassed and afraid," Brown told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "This isn't just my money; It's my dad's money. This is his life savings."
Brown said her father had stashed the cash around his house, and wanted her to manage it. Because, she said, she did not have time to get to a bank in Pittsburgh, her plan was to deposit it back in Massachusetts.
"I was concerned about traveling with cash, so I checked online and found out it was legal to travel domestically with cash," Brown said.
Then she was stopped at the airport by the TSA, and later the Drug Enforcement Agency. After questioning Brown the DEA confiscated the entire stash of cash. But five months later, no charges have been filed, and the money is still in federal custody.
A class action lawsuit has now been filed by the non-profit Institute for Justice on behalf of Brown and her father, in an attempt to get the money back.
The DEA did not comment to The Tribune-Review on the cash seizure. Law enforcement sources told the news outlet that probable cause is needed to confiscate that amount of money.
