Should a dealer ever remove......

[BCl]

cards from a players hand?
heres the short version of what happened...after the river in an obvious split pot situation i held my cards face down next to the board cards while waiting to see the other 2 players cards....i heard him say "turn em over" twice...as i saw that it was in fact a split pot the dealer removed the cards from my hand and mucked them...he said he thought i was surrendering...bullshit, he was mad cus i was waiting till last to turn em over. cost me 1/3 of the pot and put me on tilt in a very fish heavy game....

should dealer EVER take cards from a players hand or wait for them to be layed down or tossed????