This is exactly the reason why people "cop an attitude" with police (from this article):

"According to police sources, all three men at first were uncooperative - denying consent to search the car.

'It was probably not the right time for them to be copping an attitude with police,' said one federal law enforcement source who was up all night monitoring the investigation. 'But that's exactly what happened.'"

So, according to this cop, there's a right time and a wrong time to exercise your rights against unlawful search and seizure? If the police had enough cause to search the vehicle, they should have obtained a warrant and done it the right way. To say that it's "not the right time" is just wrong.

Link stolen from Fark, where there's a thread going on about this same topic.

Strange... I would have thought that the combination of the threats, blowing through the toll booth, and the fact that the bomb sniffing dogs reacted to the car would have been enough for a probable cause search whether they gave consent or not.. The cops shouldn't have even bothered asking for consent.