Nonsense.

My car was stolen. I made a police report. It later turned up with some heroin in it. I called the police again. They thanked me, took the heroin as evidence, and went along their way.

what if they suspected you of lying about the theft, or found the heroin before you did?

Probably just the criminals. It should be easy enough to prove to the police that you don’t have the means or motive to acquire those illegal goods.

However, if you’re mixed up in illegal activity then yeah it might look bad.

> It should be easy enough to prove to the police that you don’t have the means or motive to acquire those illegal goods.

I see you haven't had much experience with American police.

True, I’ve only had 6 or 7 interactions with police and they’ve all been quick and easy, but I am an educated middle age white male family man from the Bay Area so I get that other people have very different experiences from mine and yeah I could see how “just explain it to the police” wouldn’t work for everyone.

One of my friends posted the other day about how they dropped off their car to get an oil change. They went and sat down outside, scrolling through their phone. Ten minutes later the cops showed up and told him he couldn’t sleep there and he needed to go somewhere else.

Yeah, I’d say us middle-aged white dudes have it pretty easy.

In a few years you're sitting at a red light and a cop happens to be behind you. Cop idly runs your plates because what stopping him? Car comes back as stolen since you reported it stolen and no one ever corrected that when you stole it back. Enjoy your night in jail.

But it's your car and the name on your driver's license matches the name on the title and the DMV registration?

That won't stop them from sending half a dozen cops to beat the shit out of you before even asking you questions.

https://youtu.be/X54YNnZMq-M

No problem with the car and its owner, however "It appears you've filed a false police report; that's an offense son; step out of the vehicle with your hands in clear sight"