It’s the ultimate case of finder’s keepers. One person’s loss of more than $1 million is the Melvindale Police Department’s gain.

The department said the state has informed them that they can keep the $1.27 million officers found during a traffic stop in July.

During the stop on Interstate 75 and Schafer Road, officers said the driver’s story seemed shady.

“His story of where he was going and where he came from didn’t match the documentation he provided,” said Melvindale Lt. Chad Hayes.

Officers called in K-9s to sniff the tractor-trailer for drugs. No drugs were found, but the dogs spotted three 60-pound duffel bags containing money in the cabin.

Police said they are certain the money was from drugs because the K-9s smelled traces of drugs on the cash.

The driver, who was from California, said the money was not his and that he was paid a fee to pick up the money in Detroit and transfer it to Arizona.

He was taken in for questioning and then released after he signed a letter stating that Melvindale police could forfeit his tractor-trailer and its contents.

“We had nothing illegal on him. He had a valid driver’s license on him, so we let him go,” said Hayes.

Police had said they didn’t believe the owner of the money would come to the department looking for it since it was probably gained illegally.

Hayes said earlier in the summer that the owner had 20 days to contest the discovery.

Detroit Police said a major drug bust Monday netted 14 kilos of cocaine and $200,000 in cash.

The department said this morning it will release more details about the seizure at a 1 p.m. news conference with Chief Warren Evans today at Detroit Police headquarters at 1300 Beaubien.

Police are calling the cocaine confiscation one of the city’s largest drug busts in decades. Over the weekend, a related bust netted another 5 kilos.

Two Detroit police officers approached a man early Saturday morning only to ask him if he had heard two gunshots.

But they wound up arresting him after finding about $2 million in cocaine in an open duffel bag on the front seat of his car that reeked of burnt marijuana, said police spokesman John Roach.

Here is what police said happened:

The officers, who were part of the 8th Precinct’s Special Operation Unit, were patrolling in the area of Grandview and West 8 Mile at 1 a.m. when they heard two gunshots coming from near the Splash Bar & Grill at 24587 W. Eight Mile.

The officers pulled into the bar’s parking lot and shined a spotlight around as they investigated. They then saw a man get out of a silver 2004 Infiniti.

As the officers got out of their car to approach him, he began to walk toward them. The officers smelled marijuana. They walked to the car and on the front seat was a duffel bag filled with cocaine, with an estimated street value of $2 million.

“Having this quantity of cocaine off the streets is significant not just for the seizure, but for the shootings and other drug-related issues that likely will be prevented as a result,” Detroit Police Chief Warren Evans said.

The man, described as a 42-year-old Ypsilanti resident, is expected to be arraigned today or Monday. It was the second major drug bust in recent days. Earlier this week, Detroit police seized $662,000 in suspected drug money from a hotel in southwest Detroit.