How Handy!

I smell bullshit.

A Highway Patrol officer pulls someone over for not signaling a lane change in a state where everyone ignores the speed limit, including the cops.

The driver declines consent to a search of the car, so the cop brings along a dog that handily "alerts" on the trunk. And this is probable cause to search?

Wait a minute! What's a Highway Patrolman doing with a drug sniffing dog, anyway? Isn't the Highway Patrol supposed to be tending to the highways, giving tickets to speeders and assisting stranded motorists?

This is bullshit. I think the cops used the dog's supposed "alert" as a pretext to circumvent the man's right not to be unreasonably searched.

No drugs were found, so the dog must have alerted to drug residue on the money sealed up in insulated bags? Oh, please.

So, the Highway Patrolman calls the drug warriors to seize the money, and lets the driver go.

This sort of thing stinks. It makes me less Proud to Be An American.

It doesn't matter whether the money was clean (it could have been) or dirty (it might have been). The point is that the cops are almost certainly guilty of using pretext, and that is for the birds.