The county’s sale of plaintiff’s condo at a tax sale to collect delinquent taxes plaintiff owed. The sale netted a sum greater than the taxes owed. The county kept the surplus sale proceeds. That was a taking of plaintiff’s property that violated the Fifth Amendment even though state law allowed the county to keep the surplus. To determine the scope of the Fifth Amendment’s protection, the Court looks to traditional property law principals, historical practice, and the Supreme Court’s prior decisions. Here, all but state law pointed to holding that plaintiff retained a property interest in the surplus proceeds of the tax sale of her property.