Man seeks return of $30K taken by state police during traffic stop in Centre County
A Pennsylvania man asked a judge Monday to force state police to return $30,000 and two cellphones he says were unlawfully taken during a traffic stop in Centre County.
Wendell Green, of Westmoreland County, claimed troopers seized the cash and iPhones after a K-9 search of his rental car during an August traffic stop on Interstate 99 even though no drugs or firearms were found and he has not been charged with a crime.
A Pennsylvania State Police spokesperson declined comment Wednesday, saying in an email that the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
A trooper told Green he was stopped for following a vehicle too closely and not having his running lights on in a work zone, according to the filing. Green said the trooper told him he was only interested in giving him a warning.
But, according to Green’s attorney, the trooper then questioned Green about his travel plans and the rental agreement before asking for consent to search the vehicle. Green denied.
Attorney Julian Allatt said in the filing that Green was in police custody for about 30-40 minutes while waiting for the K-9 to arrive. The dog ultimately alerted to a book bag in the trunk, where Green said he kept his money.
He claimed in the filing that the circumstances of the traffic stop did not give troopers probable cause to seize either the money or the cellphones. The basis for the seizure remains “entirely unknown,” Allatt wrote.
In a separate court document filed Tuesday, Allatt said the trooper’s additional questioning immediately exceeded the “permissible scope of the stop.”
“Informing Mr. Green that he would have to wait for a K9 unit is a clear moment of delineation between the seizure of Mr. Green’s person for routine traffic offenses and a second/subsequent seizure of Mr. Green’s person for a separate investigation well beyond the scope of a routine traffic stop,” Allatt wrote.
No Centre County judge was assigned as of Tuesday afternoon.
This story was originally published February 24, 2026 at 4:44 PM.