I have a good story about profiling, carrying cash on airplanes, and buying one way tickets with cash.
In the early 90s, I went all over the US tearing out abandoned data centers in exchange for the equipment and scrap. Building owners wanted it gone. I took out the UPS systems, raised floor, Liebert A/Cs, Piller 415 Hz motorgenerators, switchgear, and wire. Lots of wire. Big wire.
I had a F-350 crew cab with a capper, the truck was full of tools, and five laborers traveling with me. They had become skilled and adept at performing the specialized work of dismantling these data centers. In the first week of January 1992, we finished a job in Boston, then drove to Miami to take out the former primary data center of a large multi-branch bank.
The data center was located on a canal, and the incoming electrical service from the metering enclosure and service disconnect on the building exterior to the primary distribution switchboard in the main electrical room had four parallel feeders of 1100 KCMIL copper that were over 800' long. That size wire weighs over a pound a foot after being stripped, and at the time #1 bright copper was paying just over $1/lb. I rented a forklift to chain onto the wire and pull it out of the conduits into the empty parking lot. It lay in the sun for a while, and then we hand stripped it.
Every time we got enough to load the truck bed, I would go to the scrapyard. Each load was over 2,000 lbs. There were six of these loads, and a bunch of smaller wire. Scrapyards pay cash, and when we were done, I had about $15K. I left it in the bank bands, and stuck it in my briefcase.
We loaded five eighteen wheelers with the equipment we took out.
We had been on the road for over a month. I told the guys to take me to the airport, I'll see you in Dallas. I paid $400 cash for a one way ticket, called my girlfriend, and told her when to pick me up.
The plane landed at DFW airport, and I went to pick up my luggage. My girlfriend was at the baggage claim waiting for me. I grabbed my bag, turned to leave, and a guy in his 20s with an earring and wearing a red jogging suit stepped in front of me. He flipped out a badge, and said "I'm with the DEA. Do you have any large amounts of cash on you?" I'm thinking "Oh, f***", and say "Yeah, I have about fourteen grand in my briefcase." He says "I'd like to see it."
I replied "Right here?", and he says "Take a look around." Suddenly I notice about six guys in dark suits around the crowded baggage claim watching me closely. Then the guy looks at my girlfriend and says "Are you with him?" No one ever said she was dumb, she holds up her palms and says "Nope, I'm just giving him a ride." Thanks, sweetie.
So I opened my briefcase, pulled out the manila envelope stuffed with hundred dollar bills, and hand it to him. He took it, opened it up, looked inside, handed it back to me, and said "Thanks, you can go." I'm about to seize up, and I said "That's it?"
He says "Yeah, the guys we're looking for don't leave bank bands on their cash".
Talk about relief...I thought I was going to jail for a long time, LOL.
After we had walked away from the baggage claim, I asked my girlfriend "What the heck was the 'I'm just giving him a ride' about?" She replied "I thought I was going to be bailing you out of jail, so I didn't want them to think we were together."
That was pretty good thinking under pressure.
