Minnesota waitress Stacy Knutson will keep her $12,000 tip, lawyer says

By: Crimesider Staff
Topics: Daily Blotter

When a waitress in Moorhead, Minn. was left with $12,000, she called it a tip; police call it drug money

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(CBS) MOORHEAD, Minn. - Stacy Knutson, a waitress in Minnesota, will now keep her $12,000 tip after police confiscated the cash claiming it was drug money, her attorney Craig Richie said.

"The county attorney's office and the Moorhead Police Department have now agreed to give her the entire $12,000," said Richie.

CBS Minnesota reports Stacy Knutson says she was in possession of the money after a customer left a box at her table at the Fryn' Pan Restaurant in Moorhead. She followed the customer to her car to return the box but the woman told her to keep it. Knutson found bundled rolls of cash inside the box.

After discovering the money, she decided to call police and report it. Although she said she has five children and could use the cash.

Officers told the woman to wait 90 days in case someone claimed the money. Richie says after three months, police told Knutson the cash was being held as drug money.

"They initially said they were going to give it to her," said Richie. "Then they said, 'Oh, well, no we had the drug dogs sniff it and we think there's drugs on it and we are going to keep it.'"

Richie says police offered her a $1,000 reward, but she never received it. Knutson then filed a lawsuit in Clay County District Court.

"We argued that most money that you carry in your pocket has drug residue on it," said Richie. "She could've kept the money and nobody would've known. But she said, 'No, I'm going to do the right thing.' So she called police and now integrity has now prevailed."

More on Crimesider:

April 5, 2012 - $12,000 Tip? Waitress turns it in, cops claim it's drug money

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by JoeScrotum April 17, 2012 2:38 PM EDT: Always remember COPS are the real criminals and this fiasco proves it. Aren't they content stealing drugs and money from the property room anymore? Don't they make enough on the side dealing?

Nothing has really changed in this dishonorable profession since the Serpico scandal. Any naive citizen who requires enlightenment only has to google THIS WEEKS CORRUPT COP STORIES.

When you are finished there google POLICE CODE OF SILENCE FACTS REVEALED; Reply to this comment


by LeeInOceanside April 6, 2012 5:41 PM EDT: Honesty can get you in trouble. Not worth it.; Reply to this comment


by solorister April 6, 2012 5:22 PM EDT: Good for her , police was trying to keep the money for them self , so much lies come out of there mouth .
Manassas police had RSI keep most of my tax return 2000. As making mess with my medical reports; Reply to this comment


by Ourdoc1 April 6, 2012 4:47 PM EDT: As the lawyer says, I'll get you at least 9k of that money back, the rest is mine.....; Reply to this comment


by CurrencyTrader April 6, 2012 2:35 PM EDT: What I am curious about, if it is drug money or not, why would a patron leave $12,000? If in fact it was drug money it seems the patron would be jeopardizing herself. If not drug money, why would she just leave that much money to a total stranger? There has to be more to this than just a lady leaving a box on a restaurant table with rolled up cash in it.; Reply to this comment


by Oilfield_Alberta April 6, 2012 1:00 PM EDT: sounds like the cops needed beer and pizza money.

www.landmassdirt.com; Reply to this comment

by Jhihmoac April 6, 2012 12:10 PM EDT

Of course she'll get to keep it...and the lawyer will get one-third...DUHHH!

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by audemus April 6, 2012 1:46 PM EDT: Better than a police department, with quotas to fill, keeping all of it.


by involved_indi April 6, 2012 11:54 AM EDT: Had a local case one time where a person who found $15,000 turned it into police. It was in a very specific container. The person who lost it showed up, described the container and where he thought he lost it at and was given the cash. Twenty minutes later another guy showed up, described the container and when questioned was very vague about where it was lost. He turned out to be the brother-in-law of a cop. Imagine that...; Reply to this comment


by bearfoot33 April 6, 2012 11:39 AM EDT: we are a sad, sad people!; Reply to this comment

by Transatlantique April 6, 2012 11:20 AM EDT

This is more proof of the corruption of our police system. Cops are becoming the very wise guys they aim to eliminate. They wanted to keep that money the way they keep drugs to use for themselves. One must remember that cops are people who joined the force because they didn't want or couldn't to go to college. They carry around a chip on their shoulders because they know they are intellectually challenged. They are drawn to crime because deep down it is the very thing that they are. I stay as far away from them as I can.

Once, I called them to investigate my neighbours for a meth lab, and when I called to ask if they'd been arrested when they found evidence, they lied to me and told me they were waiting for evidence to arrest them when they had already arrested them and let them go on bail. The manufacturers didn't have any valuable assets to confiscate so there was nothing in it for them and no reason to hold the creeps. They kept stringing me along as to what was going on. I told them I wasn't going to live next door to that rubbish, and that I didn't want them getting a hold of any of my mail in case the postal service accidentally delivered it to them. They had a pit bull that was irritating the hell out of me every time I went outside. I was a prisoner in my own home until they finally packed up and left for not paying rent. Also, I had busted them for steeling electricity by tampering with their metre, so the power company took it and left them in the dark.

Cops are supposed to be there to "protect and serve," but they did nothing for me because there was nothing in it for them. They tried to steel this ignorant woman's money.

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