Can police seize your vehicle if they search it on your own land but find nothing except in your pocket?

Question

Police searched my friends vehicle on his own land found nothing in the car only in his pocket i don't think they were supposed to seize the vehicle!!

Answer 1

You're using "search" and "seize" interchangeably - they are different terms.

Police have a general right (absent owner's consent) to search anywhere they have probable cause to believe they can find evidence of a crime.  Normally that requires a search warrant, but there are certain exceptions for cars because they are inherently movable.  There are exceptions that allow for limited searches of cars immediately after a seizure of people with access to the car.  Because the car could have contained weapons of any time, police officers making a lawful arrest have a right to protect their saftey by sweeping any readily area in the car for weapons.  This will be exacerbated by any uncooperative conduct of the arrestees during or predeing the search.

Whether the car is on the owner's land isn't very irrelevant as long as it's observable by the officers from a spot where the officers have the right to be.  If the officers have a search warrant for the car then they can search where the warrant specifies or wherver the car can be holding the evidence sought.  If the car is connected with the crime itself, it may be evidence and can be seized even after a cursory search shows up nothing.  If the car is seized under some forefeiture law because it's connected with a crime (DWI) but not evidence - in either case, the officers are lawfully entitled to conduct an inventory search.  To admit as evidence anything recovered by an inventory search, the officers would only have to testify to specific procuedures used to conduct such searches, how he conformed to those procedures, and the circumstances of any recovery.