I'm confused...I thought the police were supposed to arrest con artists, not be con artists!

Municipal governments are having a difficult time balancing budgets in these challenging economic conditions, but the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota have devised a surprisingly effective way to pick up oodles of extra cash.

Steal it.
From its citizens.

I’m not kidding. City records show that St. Paul, for example, has kept nearly a quarter-million dollars from impound lot auctions this year that should have properly gone to vehicle owners. But the law requires the car owners to ask for their money, and both St. Paul and Minneapolis do their level best to keep that information from trickling through all the documentation and red tape. The St. Paul Police Department, which runs the St. Paul impound lot, sends owners of impounded vehicles a certified letter shortly after their car is towed. The letter includes citations to one city ordinance and five state laws that govern the towing, impoundment and auction of vehicles. Car owners  have to look up the fifth state law cited and read that law’s fourth paragraph before learning of the right to a refund. And to do that, they have to know what they should be looking for—which the letter doesn’t tell them.

Cute, eh?

Of course the owners don’t look and don’t ask for their refunds, and the city is happy to make sure it stays that way. The amount from this year’s auctions that might have been claimed by vehicle owners is $237,462 and rising. This is the largest amount in the past three years, a period during which the St. Paul alone pocketed $515,497 in surplus auction proceeds. Minneapolis has reaped a similar bonanza. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune asked St. Paul Assistant Police Chief Kathleen Wuorinen if the police were giving sufficient notice, and she answered, “I’m very comfortable with the procedures and policies we have in place. I can’t speculate on why people wouldn’t step forward and claim this money.”

Really, Officer? That’s a complete mystery to you, is it? The number of owners who have applied for the refunds due them is zero, nada, zilch….a perfect record. (In Minneapolis, exactly one car owner out of hundreds requested and received his refund.) Does it really take speculation to conclude that your carefully calculated method of non-notice notice is a screaming success, and that the reason nobody is seeking the money owed to them is that they don’t know they can get it?

After the Star Tribune reported on their scam, Minneapolis officials promised they would begin directly notifying vehicle owners when they’re due a refund, no games or hidden laws this time. We shall see. No word yet from St. Paul.

At this point, it doesn’t matter, does it? Once a government has shown that it will use its power to take money from its own citizens using flim-flam, smoke and mirrors, then it has forfeited the trust of the governed. A salute to the Star Tribune for exposing this disgrace, but there is still a lot of work that remains. The officials of Minnesota’s two largest cities have proven themselves to be thieves, deceivers and scoundrels.

Now what?