When Police Wreck Your Property and Leave You With the Bill

John Stossel

What happens if police destroy your property while trying to catch a bad guy?

Do they compensate you? For many the answer is: NO!

Innocent print shop owner Carlos Pena had his shop wrecked by police.

“All the work of my life … just got ruined!” says Pena.

Police destroyed his shop trying to catch a man who barricaded himself inside the shop.

Pena thought he’d be reimbursed. But after a year spent trying to navigate the bureaucracy, he hasn’t received anything.

“They just gave me numbers to call. And when you call, they referred me to somebody else,” explains Pena, “It's unbearable!”

Lawyer Jeffrey Redfern of the Institute for Justice took his case for free because he says what happened to Pena is unconstitutional.

“We want to make it clear,” explains Redfern, “when police destroy innocent people's property, they have to pay for the damage that they did.”