Cops Lose $31K After Tossing Broken Desk

[TruckDriver]

Fri May 12, 10:18 PM ET

SOMERVILLE, Mass. - More than $31,000 in drug money seized by Somerville police now is buried forever under tons of garbage in a Rochester, N.H., landfill after officers accidentally stashed the cash in a broken desk drawer that was being discarded. The drug money went missing after an evidence room technician, who had been cleaning out evidence rooms at police headquarters since last Wednesday, put the $31,535 in the drawer of the broken desk, said acting police Chief Robert Bradley. On Monday, while the technician was out of the office, two other officers involved in the evidence room cleanup threw out the desk, along with broken chairs and furniture for spring cleaning.
Bradley said the normal evidence room technician came back to work, but immediately noticed that the desk was missing. Officials eventually found that the trash and the drawer unit had been hauled to the New Hampshire landfill. On Wednesday, Somerville officers went to the New Hampshire to try and dig up the cash. However they found it was buried under hundreds of tons of super-dense, hydraulically compacted waste, and there was no way to get to it, even with heavy equipment.
"A very bad mistake," Bradley said of losing the money. Bradley said the department was investigating to determine whether any disciplinary action was appropriate. The $31,535, which covers about a dozen investigations conducted by Somerville police since July 1, 2005, was to have been split between the department and the Middlesex County district attorney's office if prosecutors won convictions in those cases.


OOPS!!!!

[JimShine]

lol..yeah, that was on the news the other night. The reporter said it is so deep down that no equipment can get to it. How convenient.

[kab69440]

couB.S.!!!gh!

[Silver R/T]

ha ha this is funny in a way

[Blown70]

Why would it be transfered to a desk, then transfer it back later my butt...... This is fishy.  Someone put 31,000 in there pocket.... Heck its cash.  Now they cannot get to it.....HMMMMMM very interesting..... I will bet it is not in the desk......

Tom

[TruckDriver]

Why would it be transfered to a desk, then transfer it back later my butt...... This is fishy.  Someone put 31,000 in there pocket.... Heck its cash.  Now they cannot get to it.....HMMMMMM very interesting..... I will bet it is not in the desk......

Tom

I am thinking the same thing

[General_01]

It is cash, but if it was processed as evidence then all of the serial numbers have been recorded. So trying to spend any of it might come back to haunt you.

[greenpigs]

Doubt it, there are ways to spend the cash.  Might not be real quick but 31K isn't THAT much money.

[Steve P.]

Nothing says it has to be spent in this country either.

Let me lock this CASH up in this BROKEN desk drawer..  Yeah, ok!!   NOT THE BIG SAFE WITH ALL THE REST OF THE CASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    Then,,, I think I'm going to take tomorrow off while they are going to be trashing all the old office furniture....   SUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuurrreeeeeeeeee   Thing.........

[dkn1997]

for 31k, someone at the dump will figure a way to get to it, you can make book on that.

[NHCharger]

I read that it was two retired cops that were helping to get rid of the junk. They probably figured no one would miss a paltry 31k.
The landfill where the money is supposedly buried is the Turnkey Landfill on Rochester Neck Road in Rochester, NH. It's about 10 miles from my house. The amount of trash that is dumped there on a daily basis is staggering. Companies truck in trash from over 100 miles away. The landfill has been open since the early 80's. On a hot summer day, the stench from the landfill can be smelled five miles downwind.

[Mike DC]

 
What kind of police station stores $31,000 in a broken desk drawer? 

I smell B.S. on this one too.

------------------------------------------------------

I can see why the landfill would be making the argument that they "can't get to it now," though. 
Most landfills cover dozens of acres and they probably don't know exactly where that truck dumped the load that day.

So we'll never know, unless the bills turn up in circulation.