So you should be able to keep money acquired with illegal acts? If you become a millionaire by selling drugs and get caught, you go to prison but after you get out, the money is yours?
Or what does „wrap it up in their probate“ mean?
> > The fire department gets called to an exploded meth lab containing a few dead bodies and a safe containing $200,000. What do?
> Find out whose money it was, and wrap it up in their probate. This should be nothing to do with the police.
The example was a meth lab though and the claim was "This should be nothing to do with the police.". Is operating a meth lab not a crime?
The context is "what to do with the $200000 we just found", not investigating crimes in general.
> context is "what to do with the $200000 we just found"
If literally nobody--including the accused--claims it, it's unclaimed property [1].
Each state and federal body has process for it. It's not uncommon to encounter unclaimed property (including cash), especially with poorly/inaccurately described bank accounts. eg https://www.fdic.gov/bank-failures/unclaimed-property-inform...
Allowing specific state actors to actively claim these goods via civil forfeiture (and bypass these systems) has always been improper. Law enforcement is untrustworthy in many locales, so this is unsurprising.
If you get convicted the court can seize the funds as part of the sentence
If you don't get convicted...well sounds like there was no crime