Law enforcement took more stuff from people than burglars did last year (2015)
I detest civil forfeiture, but this is clickbait. The burglary figure is only <i>reported</i> theft. Also, the actual metric is <i>value</i> of goods, not number of takings. Obviously, assets in forfeiture are going to be bigger on average several times over than what a thief typically gets when rummaging a house in a 2 minute panic to get out before the authorities are signaled.<p>EDIT: Also, if you read the article, it buries even one of the few redeeming aspects of civil forfeiture, payments to victims. If you buy a car and the police seize it because the VIN is tracked to a vehicle previously owned by a drug dealer who used it to ply his contraband but then sold it to pay his way as a fugitive, and once apprehended the car is then auctioned off and money is paid to the family of a victim he earlier had killed, that's part of a much bigger legal process. The remedy for the unfortunate person who bought the vehicle unawares in good faith is to go to his dealer and demand a refund or take him to court for misrepresenting the car, or if the paperwork looks good on the part of the dealer, he'll have to rely on his loss insurance.