Paper receipt taken by police...

[hammer751]

Without getting into my case too much I will explain what happened. I owned a business. Rumors started about relationships with local police. Feds investigated and steroids was the only thing they could get me on and then find out if other stuff was true. It wasn't. Still it ruined my life and business. I purchased 4 bitcoins in Chicago when the bitcoin ATM's showed up there. Just days before I accepted a plea of probation in federal court I was arrested by the state for the same charges. I guess they were upset the feds didn't care about steroids. The thing is they took my receipt from my wallet and it is all I had. I know 4 bitcoins isn't a lot to some but would really change my life right now. My attorney has asked and no return call. What else could I do? Thanks for any help!

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[BitMaxz]

You will need to seek professional help from an attorney that has a big knowledge about Bitcoin.
This is a big problem you don't have a copy of your backup seed if the receipt that you talking about is the paper backup.

Where did you generated it?

If you are living in the US I think you can report them to https://www.sec.gov/tcr and https://www.cftc.gov/complaint and maybe they can help you about your issue.

[odolvlobo]

I don't know what else you can do, but I would definitely not let them know the nature of the receipt. Here are some possible outcomes. Most are bad for you.

1. They give you back the receipt and you have your BTC back.
2. They give you back your receipt, but somebody has stolen the BTC.
3. They claim the BTC might be related to a crime and they confiscate it, and you must sue them to get it back.

BTW, a person should think twice about walking around with $150,000 in their wallet.

[Upgrade00]

Do you live in Chicago or only purchased the Bitcoins there? Many countries have a very high level of corruption with little or no respect for the rule of law, so the state where you were arrested would help your case a lot.
Also, this forum cannot directly help you, all members can do here is to give advise; If stone PMs you with offers to retrieve your funds, it is likely a scam.
• Your first approach would be to get an expert lawyer and explain your case to him/her,
• If you know the address of your funds you can use that to monitor whether it has been moved or not,
• In the event you recover your funds, make multiple backups and do not carry wyour seed phrase around.

[so98nn]

I don't know what else you can do, but I would definitely not let them know the nature of the receipt. Here are some possible outcomes. Most are bad for you.

1. They give you back the receipt and you have your BTC back.
2. They give you back your receipt, but somebody has stolen the BTC.
3. They claim the BTC might be related to a crime and they confiscate it, and you must sue them to get it back.

BTW, a person should think twice about walking around with $150,000 in their wallet.

The last statement though! It hit me hard too.

How can anyone be so easy with that much amount? OP too mentions that "it may not be lot for some" but it is mate, it is huge amount tbf. When I opened up a thread for my lost nano ledger which barely had half bitcoin in it still I was screwed like hell and tried all the options to recover the same with recovery phrases. It was unsuccessful attempt anyway but in your case, you literally moving around with the password to your account and just lost it to the feds who would care less to return it.

May be you should plea for the ATM CCTV footage stating it's your money and it was you who bought it with complete alertness and health.

[Ayiranorea]

If he had purchased and left to some other country. Now he might be in big trouble, because in some countries police doesn't know about bitcoin. Maybe the police might've taken the receipt as if taking a piece of paper. The user should've secured it in a better way than carrying in his pocket. There is chance, official stating they haven't kept the paper as it doesn't have anything to support the case. If so, the user is completely helpless.

[yazher]

Your case seems different to others where they get beaten first before their bitcoin has been stolen from them by a bunch of criminals. You, on the other hand, have some unique stories where if you ponder on it, you can actually get it back but you just need some support and power of attorney where you need to provide some solid evidence to reclaim back what's yours. The other people that lost their bitcoins didn't get it back except for a few which is so rare to happen. You can get it back if you ask someone in your place that has some good influence and don't forget to give hive some rewards when it happens.

[NeuroticFish]

I don't know what else you can do, but I would definitely not let them know the nature of the receipt. Here are some possible outcomes. Most are bad for you.

I would also advise the same. That piece of paper belongs to OP and he has to find the legal ways to get the paper or at least a xerox copy of it.

BTW, a person should think twice about walking around with $150,000 in their wallet.

I think that OP has shortened the story a little and it may have been "only" some 30-35k USD there back then (or even less).
At least I've seen a news about Bitcoin ATM in Chicago from 3 years ago and OP said "I purchased 4 bitcoins in Chicago when the bitcoin ATM's showed up there."

[Lucius]

Just days before I accepted a plea of probation in federal court I was arrested by the state for the same charges. The thing is they took my receipt from my wallet and it is all I had. My attorney has asked and no return call. What else could I do? Thanks for any help!

When they arrested you and took you to jail (if that was the case) then they took away your personal belongings that you had with you (including your wallet). I assume there is a record of all your personal belongings, including the contents of your wallet?

This is not something that can only be resolved by calls, a written request must be made - and the one who took over the contents of your wallet and all those who were supposed to keep that contents are responsible for the possible loss.

[LoyceV]

If by "receipt" you mean the thermal paper printed by the ATM with a private key on it, I have a really hard time believing it. If it's thermal paper, it isn't meant to last long. In my experience, the "ink" on normal shop receipts disappears completely in 10 years, and that's when it's properly stored (for warranty) instead of carried in my wallet.
The second big mistake is keeping the funds on the private key provided by the ATM. It is possible the ATM kept a copy of it, and it is also possible someone stole it already in the past years.
Unless you mean you recently bought 4 Bitcoin, and paid $160,000 in cash at the ATM. In that case I get why the police are interested.

I also get the feeling you're leaving out a large part of the story. Usually, FEDs don't just check people for no reason.

[joniboini]

So you kept your private key from years ago in your wallet? Are you really sure you don't put another backup somewhere? What about the address? You should be able to check whether someone already takes your coins or not at least.

Man, hard to believe you're walking around with 4 bitcoin for years without any backup. Sorry to say, but you really can't do much. I guess you might want to check out your pc, wallet, etc just in case you have other coins lying somewhere.

[RickDeckard]

I also get the feeling you're leaving out a large part of the story. Usually, FEDs don't just check people for no reason.

Albeit everyone has the right for a fair trial and no judgment (and remaining rights), I find it hard to believe that the FEDs investigated his business only due to the "relation" that he had with the local police - and meanwhile they ended up finding only steroids. My guess is that the police/FEDs deliberately took a whole of OP's belongings because they must have some reasons to believe that the money used to buy the goods (in this case BTC) was perhaps "dirty money" or an attempt to wash it?

Again OP, I am not saying that this is your case, but rest assure that you won't find more help here than in your area with a good lawyer - if proved that you are indeed not guilty you reserve the right to claim your items, including the so called paper that appears to be missing. I would keep pushing your lawyer until he helps you in this case (after all you're paying him, he should return the call to his clients).

There is also a small chance that you might have given an address for the ATM machine to send the BTC to - they are able to read a QR code from a wallet such as Exodus provides (also in it's app). In that case you would still get a receipt but that's just to inform you that there was an exchange of goods - the BTC would be received at your scanned address.

[sheenshane]

This was the consequence of being irresponsible in keeping on Bitcoin and not properly save on the right wallet, the big mistake here is you didn't have a backup in your wallet and if you rely on the receipt that was made on a thermal paper it could be the ink was faded now or it's blurred and I tend to agree with @LoyceV post above.

Possibly your Bitcoin now was been lost forever and can't be recoverable if you don't have a backup on it and might the FEDs don't have an idea on the receipt inside in your wallet.

OP, I don't think there's a better thing that you can do as of now, just let it be your 4 Bitcoin and the best step that you can do is to seek and hire a professional lawyer on this, they know better than us here.  All you have to do now is trying to remember if maybe you have a copy on the wallet of your 4 Bitcoin.

[TelolettOm]

I know 4 bitcoins isn't a lot to some but would really change my life right now. My attorney has asked and no return call. What else could I do? Thanks for any help!

I will say that 4 Bitcoins are a very big amount for me.
I don't really know what really happen exactly, But here, I will not judge each one, who is correct and who is wrong in this case.
But, is it illegal so that they should arrest you? or is your business authorized?
Actually, if it is about the law in a country, I think that it is under your country, but the FBI does?
Well, it seems that it is better for you to speak to the right person in your country that knows about the laws. And if you have proves and evidence that will help you, you better provide them. Laws will not act if you have the proves and you are on the right side. And about the receipts, if you know it is true and not a big problem, why should matter to be proof? Just you can give the explanation in the court.