I drove past two sheriffs parked in the middle of a side road off from the road I was on. Before I knew it one the sheriffs pulled me over, and his fellow deputy decided to stick his nose in it too. The officer who pulled me over told me that my license plate wasn't visible (had a thin layer of road salt on it) and as far as I am concerned was pretty far reaching (tabs and letters stuck out just fine). Then he proceeded to ask me if my friend and I were drunk or on drugs, I truthfully answered no. The officer looked around in my vehicle for a while through the windows and couldn't find anything suspicious. With out saying anything other officer walked up on the passenger side of my vehicle and ripped open the door. He looked around the seats and on the floor and pulled a frozen water bottle out from under the pass. seat, and seemed pretty concerned about it being in my vehicle asking if I knew it was in there. I assured him it was frozen water I bring to work. Then he told me my bedside was falling off and kicked the side of my truck breaking it off lodging it into my tire. Apparently being nineteen is probable cause for searching my vehicle because he asked me if he could after his partner partially attempted it. I agreed, I have nothing to hide and nothing to personal in my truck. He told my friend and I to stand on the side of the road so he could pat us down, he did just that. The other deputy couldn't help but keep asking what we had in our pockets after the other officer finnished the pat down which we had explained before. I passed the breathalizer. They searched my truck and of course didn't find anything...brilliant. He also asked me if i knew an empty cigar tin was in my truck!?? Yea, i told him, i smoked them all. He then showed me the dusty license plate which was slightly tilted (and gave me no orders on what to do), on which he started cranking. He told us to have a good night and let us go without citation.
The next day after my four years of owning the truck the license plate had fallen off. I spent the next three days looking for it. I feel that I was unneccessarily harrassed by two corrupt law enforcement agents who like to pick on teens. Was my truck illegally searched (I know i read the above post), what probable cause did they have to search, was the damaging of my truck neccessary, and was I harrassed?
If so what can I do about this?
Thanks for your time

