Search & Seizure

During the execution of a search warrant for narcotics, officers observed two new bags of golf clubs with sales tags still attached and shirts with the logo of a local country club.  In order to ascertain whether or not the golf equipment could have been stolen merchandise, the officers called the country club.  Once they were informed that the property had been recently stolen, the officers seized the property.  The issue in the case is whether the necessity of the phone call to determine whether the property was stolen defeated the requirement that, in order to seize property in plain view, it must be “immediately apparent” that the property is evidence of crime.

This was before the Supreme Court in the Horton v. California case in 1990.