9th Circuit Determines That FBI Violated Warrant When It Stole Contents Of Safety Deposit Boxes

 You might remember that the FBI raid on US Private Vaults in March 2021 where the FBI executed a warrant that expressly stated that it "does not authorize a criminal search or seizure of the contents of the safety deposit boxes" at the facility. It, instead, only authorized them instead to seize business computers, money counters and surveillance equipment. But the FBI went ahead and seized the contents of the safety deposit boxes anyway, and then refused or made it extremely onerous for owners to get back their property. The matter wound its way through the courts and now the 9th Circuit has held that "the brazen search violated the Fourth Amendment rights of the customers because the FBI didn't have individual warrants to take the personal belongings in each box," and "ordered the FBI to destroy records relating to the boxes and to hand back the money and belongings they seized."