Thread by @NBCNews

How a trip to buy farmland ended with police taking all his cash.

A pair of New Mexico businessmen were driving along Interstate 40 in Oklahoma late one night in April when a sheriff’s deputy pulled over their BMW sedan. (1/8)

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The two men, Nang Thai and Weichuan Liu, were on their way to a hotel in Oklahoma City, where they planned to sleep before heading out in the morning to close on a 10-acre plot of farmland they’d agreed to buy for $100,000. (2/8)

A Canadian County sheriff’s deputy peered into their car, and after being interrogated for hours, the two men were released without being charged or even issued a traffic ticket.

But the Canadian Co. Sheriff’s Office refused to return the $100,000 of cash seized. (3/8)

What happened to Thai and Liu is not at all unusual. Federal and local law enforcement have broad authority in many parts of the country to seize a person’s property if it is suspected to be linked to criminal activity. (4/8)

Critics across the political spectrum argue that civil asset forfeiture disproportionately impacts minorities and low-income people who are more likely to be profiled by police and less likely to have the resources to challenge the seizures. (5/8)

“The lack of accountability or transparency and the perverse financial incentives of civil asset forfeiture make the process ripe for abuse and bias,” says Megan Lambert, legal director for the ACLU of Oklahoma. (6/8)

William Campbell, an Oklahoma City-based defense attorney with expertise challenging civil forfeitures, said in any other context the officers, who are known to target cars with out of state license plates, would be seen as “common highway robbers.” (7/8)

"I’ve been living here since 1986 and worked hard for four decades,” Thai said.

“I just want my money back." (8/8)