Police confiscate $19,480 in 'unclaimed' cash

According to the incident report, upon approaching the vehicle occupied by two black males, the officer immediately noted the smell of burnt marijuana.

Pulling aside the driver, Montino Deshaun Dalton, 21, of 153 Eisenhower, Eden, NC, the officer asked him if there was more marijuana in the car. Dalton said there was. The report noted that the car was rented.

The officer asked Dalton where the men were heading, and Dalton told him they were going to Atlanta to visit Dalton’s cousin, according to the report.

During a pat-down, to which Dalton consented, the officer said he found a bundle of cash, which Dalton said contained about $600.

When he asked the passenger, Byron Augustus Mason, 21, 188 Scott Street, Pollocksville, NC, where the two were heading, Mason allegedly told him the two planned to go to Lenox Square Mall to shop, then return home.

Meanwhile, another officer searched the vehicle and found a bag containing a bag of potato chips and a quart Mason jar full of marijuana.

When they got to the trunk, the officers found a blue Puma backpack, in which they found 15 bundles of U.S. currency. Both men denied repeatedly that the bag was theirs or that they had ever seen it before, the report said.

“I told Mason that if the bag did not belong to him or Dalton it now belonged to the Commerce Police Department,” the officer said he stated.

The report did not indicate that police confiscated the $600 in Dalton’s pants pocket, whether Dalton was charged with speeding or whether the men were charged with possession of marijuana.