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Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2011 14:59:48 -0400
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From: "Karen Farnsworth" <farnsworth@charter.net>
Subject: FW: [LML] Re: beware, you may be searched!
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William,

 
To each his own, but I see a little more in this than you do. This seems to
be happening more and more; acting on bad information. The case that drew
the most attention was the King incident. Handcuffed and treated quite
rudely.

 
When you stand on you right to not have your airplane searched without a
warrant they say things like, "if you have nothing to hid why won't you let
me search"? 

 
To me this is part of the trend to allow the government to be all and know
all.

 
I will tell them, "no warrant, no search".

 
Lynn Farnsworth

 
________________________________

From: Lancair Mailing List [mailto:lml@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of
William Wilson
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 08:05
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Subject: [LML] Re: beware, you may be searched!

 
Seems pretty standard to me.  They checked out a tip that proved to be
bogus.  I don't see any rights violations here or anything out of the
ordinary.

The main lesson IMO is that, while there are plenty of cops who abuse power,
for the most part if you behave in a civilized manner and realize they are
just trying to do their job, most of them will treat you fairly.  That seems
to be what happened here.

On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 4:13 PM, Bob Rickard <r.rickard@rcginc-us.com>
wrote:

Fellow LML'ers

 
It seems inevitable that the govt will search you at some point.  Just some
info on what happened to me yesterday, you can hopefully use this to react
appropriately for your situation.  This is the third incident just at our
little airport in Missouri of this happening...

 
Bob Rickard

IV-P

 
On 18 April, 2011, I filed IFR from KGEU to K1H0 direct, with my wife on
board.  At 0845L, I departed KGEU VFR and picked up my filed IFR clearance
to K1H0 at FL210 with ABQ center.  The flight was uneventful and I cancelled
IFR approximately 10 miles from K1H0 with St. Louis Approach and landed at
1443L.  Upon landing and taxi to my hanger (P3) at Creve Coeur Airport, I
was surrounded by 6 Maryland Heights Police cars and about 10 officers.  I
exited the plane and was approached by the supervisor and asked if I had any
identification.  I produced my military ID (I am a LtCol in the Air Force
Reserve flying F-22's) as well as my driver's license, and asked the
supervisor what the problem was.  He told me that he got a "tip" from the
Federal Government that there may be a federal fugitive on board by the name
of Robert Mcrae.  He wasn't sure of the name and asked me if I knew anyone
by a name similar to that, to which I answered "no" to all.  He also stated
that he was surprised to see a woman in the plane with me since his
informant said there would be two men in the plane.  I inquired as to who
would give a tip like that, and he was vague.  A this point my wife exited
the plane and was asked to produce her ID as well and was questioned as to
what we were doing and where we were going and where we came from.   It was
apparent to the supervisor pretty quickly that my wife and I were not
federal fugitives as they ran our ID's, but he asked to search the airplane
anyway.  I told him that I was aware of my rights and he could not search
anything without a warrant, and he was quick to add "or your permission" and
"I could have the dogs come out".  (side note - they don't need a warrant to
have the dogs check out your aircraft - if the dogs find something and
indicate, then they have probable cause to search you without a warrant.  If
the dogs find nothing they cannot search your aircraft until a warrant is
issued).  I told him that I would play nice, had nothing to hide, and that
my plan was to take my belongings out of the airplane and put them in my car
to go home, and I would allow him to see what I took out and visually see
inside the cockpit and baggage compartment, but I was not allowing a search
of the airplane.  He agreed to this. I took my 2 pieces of luggage out of
the back and showed him the contents briefly (not a complete search but
opened up the zipper and showed clothes on top) as well as the couple of
vases we had bought in Phoenix and lunch/sodas we had in the cockpit.  They
saw nothing of interest and returned my wife's ID, but kept mine and made
further calls.  The supervisor indicated "I'm on overtime, I am outta here"
and left, but another officer checked with "EPIC" (unsure of the spelling)
which he told me was an international consortium that traded information on
travel, etc.  He told me he was aware of my trip earlier this year to Mexico
and the Cayman Islands (honeymoon cruise) but there was nothing to get me in
trouble.  He then returned my ID and let us go.