Police trashed innocent business owner's truck while searching for drugs... then left a NOTE to explain

Matthew Heller attended a concert in Tampa Florida in February and left his truck parked in the venue's parking lot

When he returned, Heller found that his truck had been ransacked and damage had been done in the process

In addition to the damage, Heller found a note from the Tampa Police Department explaining that they searched his car for marijuana while he was in the concert



No marijuana was found in his vehicle

A Florida business owner left his vehicle in an amphitheater parking lot as he attended a hip-hop concert earlier this year. When he returned to the vehicle after the show, he found that his truck had been broken into and vandalized.

It wasn't until Matthew Heller found a note in his trashed vehicle outside the Ybor Amphitheater in Tampa that he discovered that it wasn't your typical thief who'd broken into and damaged his truck - it was the police.

'Sir, your car was checked by TPD K-9,' the note left by police states. 'The vehicle was searched for marijuana due to a strong odor coming from the passenger side of the vehicle. Any questions call Cpl Fanning.'

FYI: After trashing Matthew Heller's vehicle, the Tampa Police Department left him this note

Promotion: The truck the police trashed isn't just a vehicle for Heller, it's advertising for his airhorn business

After tearing through the vehicle and damaging much of the electrical wiring and cosmetics, the officers found precisely zero marijuana - or any other drugs, for that matter.

As would be expected, Heller is not happy.

'You think if anyone is going to break into your vehicle in Ybor, the last person you think, it’s going to be the cops,' Heller tells WFLA.com.

The officers who trashed the vehicle didn't even leave a business card or an apology - just a handwritten note on a 2x3 piece of scrap paper with a phone number written on it.

Heller's vehicle is an over-sized truck with graphics on the side advertising his business, HornBlasters, which sells automotive air-horns.



Damage: Heller shows how pieces of paneling were ripped off of the console on his truck

Paint: Damage also was done to the truck's paint job - before the officers realized there were no drugs in the vehicle

'Disgusted, I’ve got my whole life savings in this truck. It’s like a marketing tool for my business to promote the air horns and everything. The horns weren’t working, all the electronics were ripped out,' said Heller.

Heller is questioning the officers' claims that his car smelled like marijuana - as he notes, the truck is lifted very high off the ground, where a K-9 unit would have a hard time smelling.

Additionally, it was in the parking lot at a concert, where the smell of marijuana is often not an uncommon scent.



'It was all sealed up, a parked vehicle in a private parking lot for a hip hop concert in Ybor. There were all kinds of smells, everywhere around here,' said Heller.

Heller says he would have happily allowed the officers to search his vehicle, but says he's upset that they trashed his truck, and didn't even ask for his permission, which - depending on who you ask - is potentially against the law.



Horns: The wiring to the air horns Heller has hooked up to the truck were damaged in the officers' search for non-existent marijuana

Questionable: Heller's truck is lifted more than three feet off the ground, which has him questioning how a dog was able to smell non-existent marijuana that couldn't be reached by the animal's nose

'It’s an illegal search,' Florida attorney Bryant Camareno told the website. 'Usually if it’s some kind of unoccupied vehicle there has to be some level of exigent circumstance to justify searching a vehicle without a search warrant. Exigent could mean if there is a dead body inside, if there is a screaming child locked in the car, a dog but if the car is unoccupied there is no exigency to justify the search.'

The Tampa Police Department, however, defends its search of Heller's truck and says it was perfectly legal.

'While the search is legal, it is not typical,' the TPD said in an email to WFLA. 'The Tampa Police Department is now reviewing the specifics of this investigation.'

In the meantime, Heller is still baffled about how something like this could even happen.

