Massachusetts Lawmaker Wants To Make It A Felony To Have Secret Compartments In Your Car
from the big-problems,-small-minds dept
A Massachusetts lawmaker is looking to give law enforcement another way to bust people and seize vehicles. Modify a vehicle you own in a certain way and you can expect to never see that vehicle again.
Blame it on the war on drugs and pressure from law enforcement lobbying. Stephan Hay, a Democrat state representative for Fitchburg, has introduced a bill that would criminalize operating a vehicle with a hidden compartment designed for the purpose of secretly transporting drugs and related contraband, equipment, currency, or weapons.
The bill, H.1266, separately criminalizes the process of altering a vehicle with the intent of creating such hidden compartments. In each case the bill calls for a two-year mandatory minimum sentence, five years for subsequent offenses. The bill also allows police to seize the modified vehicle.
Notably, the bill wouldn’t limit “secret compartment” busts to those containing contraband. The presence of an aftermarket “concealed storage space” is enough to trigger an arrest and seizure. The state would have to prove there was intent to use the compartment to store contraband, but the wording in the bill [PDF] flips the burden of proof when it comes to the vehicle itself.
Proof that a conveyance contains a hidden compartment as defined in this section shall be prima facie evidence that the conveyance was used intended for use in and for the business of unlawfully manufacturing, dispensing, or distributing controlled substances.
As Reason’s Scott Shackford points out, Massachusetts already has the worst forfeiture laws in the nation. This built-in presumption of guilt only makes this worse. Defendants will start out in the hole, asked to prove a negative simply to have a small shot at recovering their seized vehicle. Unknowingly purchase someone’s drug-running vehicle? It’s as good as gone if the police discover any secret compartments. Seeing as criminal charges would result in something more aligned with due process, it will come as zero surprise if the law is used to seize vehicles but leave prima facie “drug traffickers” otherwise unharmed.
Filed Under: cars, compartments, massachusetts, privacy, stephen hay, storage
Comments on “Massachusetts Lawmaker Wants To Make It A Felony To Have Secret Compartments In Your Car”
I lose everything but my Harley
My RV has a hidden floor safe for valuables; my car has a hidden gun safe (and hidden NOS, but that doesn’t count).
So does that make me a major criminal enterprise now?
But on the “good news” front, there are going to be a LOT of vehicles for sale at the next police auction…
Re: I lose everything but my Harley
That sounds like a continuous cash stream. Seize the vehicle. Sell it off at the police auction (keeping careful records on who purchases the impounded vehicle). Then a couple of months later, pull over the purchaser for a minor infraction, "discover" the hidden compartment, and sieze the vehicle to start the cycle over again.
Re: Re: I lose everything but my Harley
Simple solution to that. If you purchase an impounded vehicle,
register it out of state. If you own property in another state, use that address to register the vehicle, and also get a drivers license in that state, instead of Massachussets.
This is why rich people will not be as affected. Just simply buy a home in another state, and use that address to register the vehicle, and then get a drivers license in that state
Re: Re: Re: I lose everything but my Harley
But breaking Massachusetts law in Massachusetts will subject you to Massachusetts punishment regardless of where you reside, no?
Re: Re: Re:2 I lose everything but my Harley
Mass. Police wouldn’t have an address, or license plate to BOLO for. Could still lose the car, but it’d be harder for ’em for find it.
Re: Re: Re:3 I lose everything but my Harley
Except when you drive into Mass. and have to walk home. Like all forfeiture laws, this will be used to enable the police to seize things without bringing charges.
Re: I lose everything but my Harley
For sale? Really? In the stories I’ve read, the chief gets to keep ’em, and drive ’em around town.
But if they’re auctioning cheap, cool cars, especially with secret hiding places, I’m down with that. Keep on seizin’!
Re: I lose everything but my Harley
Sorry, you could lose the Harley too. Peter Fonda’s character famously used the gas tank to hide cash in the movie Easy Rider.
Re: and hidden NOS, but that doesn't count
The fact that you have NOS in there does not prove that you didn’t create the compartment for contraband. Guilty.
Magnetic Key Hider
Walmart: Magnetic Key Hider
$4.99
About this item
Magnetic Key Hider Large enough for today’s rubber-headed keys with 2 magnets for extra gripping power on automobiles, RVs or any steel surface.
Re: Magnetic Key Hider
All a cop would have to do is slip one on a car and bingo! Cop gets car.
Re: Magnetic Key Hider
Where do you get this? I got kidnapped once, and got awauy, but I want to make sure I have an extra hidden key in my car if it ever happens again. It would be much better than hiding in my shoe.
Re: Re: Magnetic Key Hider
If the Walmart link is simply too much for you, then let me google that for you.
Looks like Home Depot has another brand listed for $2.58: “This item is available in stores.”
Some reviewers recommend avoiding the cheaper ones, and getting a high quality one from an auto parts store. Advance AutoParts carries one from AutoCraft. It’s listed at $3.99, so maybe it’s much better quality.
Re: Magnetic Key Hider
That would be enough. You could after all hide some drugs in it!!! Your guilty!!! Now try to prove me wrong? How would you do that? Your word that you never used it for drugs? HAHAHAAHAHA So your car is now stolen by the police. If it’s not paid off, you’ll be paying the bill as the police use it for other things and finally sell it.
Re: Re: Magnetic Key Hider
Yes, indeed. From the Massachussetts bill —
(Emphasis added.)
Attached magnetically would be “attached”.
Also from the bill, in (d) —
(Emphasis added again.)
Testimony that a magnetic key hider was magnetically attached to a car could be supplemented with twenty-seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with circles and arrows showing exactly where the key hider was found magnetically attached to a car.
Re: Re: Re: Magnetic Key Hider
Sounds like some noble group could bulk purchase or produce a number of these magnetic holders and place them on every single government vehicle they come across. Citizens being up in arms over all cop cars having these yet not being seized will make all of the people who have their cars seized for key holders, angry enough to revolution
<em>criminalize operating a vehicle with a hidden compartment designed for the purpose of secretly transporting drugs and related contraband, equipment, currency, or weapons</em>
And how do they prove that this is the purpose it was designed for?
Re: Re:
http://commonmark.org/help/
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Yes, realized it after posting (been a while since i posted here) – and can’t edit comments 🙁
Re: 'Possession of a kitchen knife is evidence that the accused intended to murder someone with it.'
And how do they prove that this is the purpose it was designed for?
That’s the ‘great’ thing, they don’t have to.
‘Proof that a conveyance contains a hidden compartment as defined in this section shall be prima facie evidence that the conveyance was used intended for use in and for the business of unlawfully manufacturing, dispensing, or distributing controlled substances.‘
The mere existence of the compartment is ‘proof’ that it was intended for concealing illegal activity/items, and it’s up to the (former) owner to prove that it wasn’t.
Re: Re: 'Possession of a kitchen knife is evidence that the accused intended to murder someone with it.'
Or from the other side, if you found the compartment, it wasn’t secret, was it?. A secret is only a secret if the other person doesn’t know about it.
Perhaps the gentleman from Massachusetts means hidden…but then pretty much all cars have spaces that would count as hidden.
Re: Re: Re: 'Possession of a kitchen knife is evidence that the accused intended to murder someone with it.'
Yes, including a large side compartment on a station wagon that opens with the car’s own keys, containing a spare tire. True story.
Re: Re: 'Possession of a kitchen knife is evidence that the accused intended to murder someone with it.'
Next they will claim that my icepick collection is evidence that i want to murder my boss.
Re: Re: 'Possession of a kitchen knife is evidence that the accused intended to murder someone with it.'
There’s an easy awnser to this. Just put a sticker on the hidden compartment saying “not for transporting drugs or other contraband”, voila problem solved.
Re: Re:
That’s whats do great about it. They don’t have to prove it’s used for drugs. You’re already guilty. You have to prove it’s NOT used for drugs. I’m not sure ho you can go about doing that, so you’ve just lost your car.
Also, what about cars that inadvertently already have “hidden compartments”?
My wife’s Lexus SUV allows you to remove the center plastic cupholder assembly (presumably for cleaning, and there’s a large cavity underneath that she often hides stuff in that she doesn’t want people to find with a cursory search of the glovebox.
Re: Re:
Soon to be some cop’s wife’s SUV?
Re: Re:
Thanks for sharing! Please ask her to hide the new model iPad in there, preferably with a black leather case. And a pack of Twinkies.
Re: Re:
That is also good for hiding an extra cell phone for tracking purposes, not just for if, a cop seizes your vehicle, but also if a thief takes it, I can locate it and go get it myself.
Someone once took my car on a joyride, and I was able to use Find My Android to go where they left it and get it back, no need to call police.
Aren’t some ‘compartments’ made simply by ripping off interior paneling?
So… LEO searches your car -> breaks off panel looking for nonexistant contraband -> your car now has a “secret compartment” -> you’re now operating an illegal vehicle which is now seized as you’re arrested.
And of course cops will be considered exempt from “altering with intent to create” part.
My car has a compartment off the right side of the trunk for the battery, which you get to by pulling off part of the side. The cover blends in so well that the only obvious indication is the two depressions to grab and pull with.
So according to Stephan Hay, the serious offense of automotive battery smuggling is a thing now ..and I’m guilty!
Re: Re:
The proposed law specifies an aftermarket concealed storage space. If it originally came with the car, it’s OK.
Of course if your DieselGate vehicle is repaired with urea-based selective catalytic reduction – and they hide the diesel exhaust fluid tank rather than have it take up your trunk – that’s aftermarket concealed storage. Massachusetts will have access to a database of cars with this modification.
Massachusetts Police gonna get themselves some Volkswagens!
Re: Re: Re:
Might as well extrapolate ridiculously, just to see where reality will be in 5 years:
a) A driver must be in the car to operate it.
b) A driver is definitely an ‘aftermarket’ item.
c) A driver can swallow condoms/balloons full of, say, heroin.
d) The inside of the human body isn’t visible with the naked eye.
e) Cops now own all the cars.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Only the ones they want. Play it safe, drive a beater.
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
That would make my ’96 Volvo 850 GLT Non Turbo on the cops “No Thanks” list. Thankfully, I’m nowhere near Massachusetts. Just one more State to go on the “Won’t ever move/Live there” list….
Re: Re: Re:
With a law like that, I’m sure the onus would be on me to prove it’s not aftermarket by being dragged through court, because “the officer can’t possibly by familiar with every possible type of vehicle they come across”.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Actually, the onus will be on your car to prove to the court. You won’t be involved in the lawsuit, so you won’t have to do anything.
Re: Re: Re:
So a Magnetic hidden key case stuck to your car would be a aftermarket hidden compartment. You could possibly hide some drugs in it. Now you’ve lost your car. How do you prove you don’t hide drugs in it? I have no idea.
Re: Re: Re:
Simple solution there, don’t get the dieselgate modification done, and you will haven no problem with that.
Re: Re:
a dodge caravan has that “secret” jack stash in the back to put your jack in. Does that count?
If only we could get them to remember that innocent until PROVEN guilty & evidence thing.
Instead they try to pass stupid laws for headlines because drugs & will just rake in the cash as the cars try to defend themselves without counsel.
A Real Money Maker for the Police
They can seize the vehicle, sell it at auction and (after collecting the payment), seize it AGAIN! They could sell the same vehicles dozens of times.
War On Intelligent Thinking
See subject header.
There is no hope or help for this stupid machine called guvmint and crooks who benefit as the result of their ineptness, cruelty, stupidity.
As the former AG under Bush said, “The Constitution is a quaint document.”
The F…… Bunch of Iiots, or FBI, now regards anyone who cites the Constitution to be terrorists, when they are not busy entrapping the mentally challenged.
Spare Tire compartment
So, what about the spare tire compartment? Most cars no longer come with a spare tire, but the compartment is still there under the trunk. Is everyone a criminal now?
Re: Spare Tire compartment
If it originally came with the car, it’s OK. If it’s aftermarket, you’re a criminal.
Can I confisicate a car on the basis that I think it has secret compartments, but I can’t find them? (Because they’re secret.)
Re: Re:
Shush you, don’t give them ideas, the ones they have already are bad enough.
just another drop in the “regulate all the things” bucket.
If it’s okay over here, its okay over there!
I knew it!
Proof that many new cars are "intended for use in and for the business of unlawfully manufacturing, dispensing, or distributing controlled substances"!
Scope creep
"…and has been installed in or attached to a conveyance…"
Don’t even think about hiding things up your ass…
IF they seize your vehicle, you go steal it back. Go down to the impound yard, cut the lock the off the gate with a pair bolt-cutters, then get into your vehicle and take it out of there.
Re: Re:
Sure. And how will you defeat the cameras filming you do that? Good like actually trying this.
Re: Re: Re:
Simple, jam the cameras. Most cameras are wirless can be jammed. The cameras will just simply cease functioning as long as they are within range of the jammer. That will pravent them from getting any photo evdidence.
Just jam the frequencies the cameras are using.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Raspberry jam?
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
Not a jammer that block the radio frequencies wireless cameras use.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
You find out where the videotape machines are that are recording from the cameras, then you break in their and erase all the tapes with a degguasser, eliminating all video evidence.
There would be a monitoring room, just break in there and destroy the video evidence against you that has been recorded.
Then they will have no case against you without that evidence.
Re: Re: Re:
If they arrest you for that, you just make bail, then not show up in court. Go to the airport right away, and get on the plane leaving the country.
Re: Re: Re: In for a penny...
And if they try to stop you from leaving via a plane after you stole you car back, were arrested for it, made bail and then skipped out on court just hijack the plane and fly to another country.
And if they try to have the police in another country arrest you and extradite you back for hijacking a plane sneak on to a shuttle to the international space station where man’s puny laws don’t apply.
And then when they try to get you there take the shuttle and fly to the moon and set up a base where you can definitely get away this time.
/s, just in case it wasn’t obvious enough.
Your cupholder
Theoretically, several Chevrolet models, from 2006 to around 2015 could be illegal.
That is becuase the space beneath the cupholder could be used to hide stuff.
I know this becuase when I had my 2005 Cobalt, I woudl keep all of my credit cards and most of my bank cards hidden there, when on trips, as well as my casino winnings in Nevada, when I hit a $200 jackpot on a poker machine, just in case I did get stopped, so no cop would ever find my cash.
I also kept my cards hidden there when travelling to places where the ERAD might be used, so if any cop had stopped me and wanted to see my cards, I could show just the one credit card I had in my shirt pockets, and the any cop had asked if any had any more cards, I would have lied to him and said no I did not.
Fortunately I did not have such an encounter, but I was well prepared.
The space beneath the cupholder in those models is very handy, not just to hide stuff from cops, but also to foil any car burglars as well.
Should we be shocked?
This is already the law in a large number of states. In fact, there’s a guy in prison, sentenced to decades of incarceration, because he made aftermarket hidden compartments. The feds threatened to jail him for conspiracy to traffic drugs, even though they knew he didn’t traffic, if he didn’t hand over his complete customer list. If he did, some of them might not appreciate it. SO instead, he kept quiet and a customer who cut a deal and lied sent him to jail.
Re: Should we be shocked?
Which?
“criminalize operating a vehicle with a hidden compartment designed for the purpose of secretly transporting drugs and related contraband, equipment, currency, or weapons”
So the locked pistol case under my seat is now criminal?
So secret compartments are illegal. Secret compartments are only secret if no one knows about it. If the police know about it, then it isn’t a secret anymore. Now you just have a compartment. And currently having a compartment isn’t illegal.
Not that this would work, but...
“Your honor, I had to install that secret compartment, knowing that MA has a rampant problem of illegal “civil asset” robberies, it was not safe for me to travel in MA without hiding my cash”
“Officer, I bought this car used, I did not know it had this compartment”….
Re: Re:
Wex [LII]: prima facie:
dictionary.law.com: prima facie:
Cash
So they steal your money if you leave it out in the open, and now they want to make it a crime to hide it from them so they can’t steal it as easily.
Nice.
Not a new idea
This has been on the books in Ohio for 5 years (http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/2923.241).
link
Here’s the gist of it:
And yep, it’s being used: link
Not a new idea, plus more
Like Flakbait says, this is not a new idea… it’s a crime in a number of states (I’m not taking the time to do a survey of them), you can add Georgia to that list O.C.G.A. 16-11-112 (felony as well).
The original post misses the bigger issue, which is that presumptions in criminal law are [almost] always unconstitutional (someone less lazy can find the cite… Volokh Conspiracy has addressed this before).
And as always, civil forfeiture laws are a form of theft.