American shakedown: Police won't charge you, but they'll grab your money

This has been going on for years. 34 years ago a buddy of mine and I were arrested in a small resort town for minors in possession of alcohol. We were taken down to the station and booked. They inventoried everything we had and then "fined" us $20 less than the total amount that we had between us. Years later I had a friend run a police record on me and nothing showed up. Oh yeah, they kept our cooler full of beer also.