NJ Couple Forced To Pay Vehicle Storage After Police Search Yields Nothing, Lawsuit Says

JACKSON, NJ — A Jackson Township couple whose minivan was impounded for a search that resulted in no criminal charges are suing the town's police department because they are being required to pay storage fees to get their minivan back, according to a lawsuit.

Michele and Edward Norberto filed the lawsuit in April over the situation, which resulted from a motor vehicle stop in January, according to the lawsuit, which called it an illegal search and seizure of their property.

Michele Norberto was driving the couple's 2005 Chrysler Town & Country on West Veterans Highway on Jan. 21 when she was pulled over by a Jackson Township police officer, according to the lawsuit.

It was the third time the officer had pulled her over in that area since August 2025, the lawsuit said.

The officer asked Michele Norberto if there was "anything in the car that he should know about," according to the lawsuit, and she said no. He then asked for permission to search the car and she refused to consent to a search, the lawsuit said.

Jackson police called for an Ocean County Sheriff's K-9 officer to come and sniff the minivan, and made Michele Norberto wait outside the minivan in 29-degree weather for nearly an hour until the K-9 officer arrived, according to the lawsuit.

The K-9 sniffed the minivan and indicated the presence of drugs in the vehicle, and it was impounded for a search, the lawsuit said.

That search ultimately turned up nothing, and no criminal charges were filed against Michele Norberto, the lawsuit said.

The minivan sat in impound for more than a week before it was searched, with Edward Norberto turned away twice, on Jan. 22 and Jan. 30, when he tried to pick the vehicle up.

On Feb. 4 he was finally given a release form to allow him to pick it up, but when he tried he was told he had to pay nearly $1,000 in storage fees.

The minivan is worth less than the storage fees, the lawsuit said, so the Norbertos still have not picked it up.

The police department's "policy and/or custom whereby the impounded vehicles of citizens (seized based on a K9's positive indication of narcotics in the vehicle) are towed to a storage facility in Jackson Township where citizens are required to pay storage fees to the owner, even in situations where the search warrants result in negative findings of criminal activity," results in unlawful taking of the minivan, the lawsuit says.

"There was no reasonable basis for the motor vehicle stop," the lawsuit said, and was "a violation of Plaintiff’s right to be free from an unlawful search in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the New Jersey Constitution and the New Jersey Civil Rights Act."