After he was attacked by an intruder, police took cash he had in a closet. Then they came and told him in the hospital.

NORTH CHARLESTON — Isiah Kinloch fended off a robber only to have police take his money.

Kinloch had heard a woman knocking on his door, calling for help one night in October 2015. He opened the door, and a man pushed his way into the apartment, demanding Kinloch give him money and drugs.

He fought the robber off, catching a bottle to the face and throwing a dog’s bowl at his assailant, who ran away.

Kinloch called 911 and was taken to the hospital, where he found out his head would be OK. His $1,800 cash, though? Gone.

It was taken after the robber left, by North Charleston police officers who said they were doing a protective sweep of the apartment. They smelled marijuana, searched Kinloch’s home and found less than two ounces of marijuana. They then seized the cash he had in a bedroom closet, chalking it up as drug proceeds.

Kinloch said an officer went to the hospital later that night, squeezed into the room where doctors and nurses were treating him and broke the news.

Kinloch was charged with possession with intent to distribute marijuana, a charge that was later dropped. But police kept the money, and his assailant was never found.

“I really lost,” Kinloch said. “I lost my money, my whole sanity.”

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Earlier that year in February, a tractor-trailer had crashed into Kinloch’s car, seriously injuring him. He cracked his head open, cut his organs and shattered his spine.

He started using the marijuana to manage the pain, he said. He was still hooked to a catheter and using a walker when someone tried to rob him.

Putting it back together

Kinloch said he turned to marijuana several months after the crash.

He was taking 27 medications a day, “and that’s not counting things like stool softener,” he said. Some of his pills were strong opioids.

That he was beat up by a stranger who wanted his drugs doesn’t surprise Kinloch. It’s what he’s learned to expect growing up poor in North Charleston. “Where I came from, I’m not supposed to have money like this,” he said. “At least legally.”

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Isiah Kinloch roller blades with his son Robbie Johnson, 7, during his birthday party at Music In Motion Family Fun Center. JOSH MORGAN/Staff

But Kinloch said he had earned the money police took from his bedroom. He makes a living as a tattoo artist and cobbler.

It wasn’t the path people expected when as a student he doodled on his school papers.

Kinloch said his family told him to get a job because no one was going to pay him to sit around and draw. “But again, here I am. I get paid to tattoo people’s skin,” he said.

Kinloch said he didn’t know about civil forfeiture when his money was seized. He didn’t know the hoops he’d have to go through to get his money back from police.

The city of North Charleston had attempted to serve him a summons three times at the apartment where he was beaten, but Kinloch had already left, court records show.

He said he never got the notices and didn’t see the $341 worth of legal ads that ran in the Post and Courier newspaper when prosecutors couldn’t locate him.

Because he never answered the summons, Kinloch’s $1,847 was forfeited to the police.

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