Civil Asset Forfeiture Victim Fought — and Won — When the Government Tried to Take His Property

Imagine owning your home outright after finally paying off the bank. You’re nearing retirement, and you’re making plans to travel and visit the grandkids. Then one day, you get a letter from the government with an unexpected declaration: We now own your house.

Russ Caswell, a 72-year-old business owner from Massachusetts, got one of those letters. Except the government seized his entire business — a motel worth nearly $2 million — without so much as a warning.

“When this first started, I got this notice in the mail and I thought it was some sort of mistake or something, with no warning, no nothing … basically, after you got through all the legal mumbo jumbo, it said, ‘We’re taking your property,’ and I was dumbfounded,” Caswell told TheBlaze

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