D.C. man orders TV, receives assault rifle

I've witnessed this same thing personally. Happened to me about 7 or 8 years ago. I had ordered a few rifles and instead of delivering them to me....the UPS guy delivered them to a blood bank in the city I lived in. He dropped off over thirty packages and had the woman in the lobby sign for everything. I had tracking on the package so when it was "delivered" I was a bit shocked...since it had not been delivered to me. I quickly looked it up and printed the screen and contacted UPS. They at first denied it and then magically the guns were "out for delivery" on their website. The same lame brain that delivered the rifles to the blood bank was sent to retrieve them and deliver them to me. So...it happens. I did not call the police and got my rifles quickly after my call.

I was watching Fox news early this morning. The shipping tag fell of in transit and someone picked it up and stuck it on the box they thought it fell off of.

Seriously? A gun worth 2k... and this guy turns it in? Especially after it was just left outside his door... If I didn't sign for it, who can prove that I received it? I'm wondering though, if you look at the photo in the article, the rifle box is sitting on another box, that's opened on one end. If you look even closer at the bottom box, it looks like there is another box just the same size as the opened rifle box. Maybe he turned in one, kept the other, and still gets his TV?

mobeewan said:

The shipping tag fell of in transit and someone picked it up and stuck it on the box they thought it fell off of.

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I got 30 kg of weapons grade plutonium for the same reason ... I kept it .. not have 4 warheads ! Better than a TV for sure.

On a more serious note & back to being on topic

thebigsd said:

Guy orders a TV from Amazon and get a rifle dropped off by UPS. Right now they're bot sure where the mix-up happened.--snip--
http://usat.ly/N66ppZ

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There are so many things wrong here it is hard to determine where to begin.

1) Amazon software directed the wrong purchase to the wrong supplier or crossed up two different purchasers names, products & shipping instructions.

2) UPS does not determine shipping instructions, make up the shipping label. The seller/shipper accomplishes that.

3) Out of state purchaser - requires delivery to FFL. Other ATF violations apparent i.e. can't ship gun to location (Wash. D.C.) where such is illegal.
http://www.atf.gov/publications/download/p/atf-p-5300-15.pdf

4) Could this be an attempt to discredit gun owners via "loophole"? Possibly, but not likely. Nevertheless it is an opportunity for the antis to complain about on-line sales, background checks etc., et al.

BTW - the original article together with any photographs which obviously existed from posts prior to this, is gone, has been amended. Most of the information to which you all refer is no longer there.

Will be very interesting to see how this plays out.

Grapeshot said:

There are so many things wrong here it is hard to determine where to begin.

3) Out of state purchaser - requires delivery to FFL. Other ATF violations apparent i.e. can't ship gun to location (Wash. D.C.) where such is illegal.
http://www.atf.gov/publications/download/p/atf-p-5300-15.pdf
.

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Could have been to a dealer ... (labels got crossed remember)

davidmcbeth said:

Could have been to a dealer ... (labels got crossed remember)

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Labels may have been crossed - even that has not been determined. UPS may have delivered to wrong city/wrong address - that has not been determined.

Only thing determined is that something went very wrong, perhaps on multiple levels........if the media report is accurate and that remains to be seen. Entirely too much information is missing to make a reasonable assessment.

Grapeshot said:

2) UPS does not determine shipping instructions, make up the shipping label. The seller/shipper accomplishes that.

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You've never worked at UPS I can tell.
I worked there for way too long and I know that this level of screw up is 100% possible. I have seen all sorts of screw ups and miss shipments, packages will label swaps etc. I have seen labels come off and stick to walls, belts, other packages, and more. So trying to blame Amazon or the other shipper is barking up the wrong tree. As soon as I noticed it had gone through UPS I knew that the mix up happened in UPS somewhere somehow.

If the TV shippers didn't put the label on correctly, yes people are that stupid, when it got loaded near the rifle the label could have transferred from the TV to the rifle. There are more possibilities for a screw up than that but I am presenting the most innocent possibility that I have observed.

The other thing is that we don't have his address, the address of the gun store it was supposed to go to, the addresses of where the items where shipped FROM etc.

Nor do I know what happened to the TV. It is possible that someone created a new label for the TV and wanted to reduce the chances of getting caught either swapped labels on the gun box and sent the TV to his/her house instead OR there was damage to the packaging and when being repaired the wrong label got put on the gun box. I have seen these things happen. The up side is that if they label swapper created a new label for the TV there will be a record of it but to prove who did it normally takes a pattern.

Meanwhile the two shippers are going to take the heat while UPS is the company that should be flamed for this.

Freedom1Man said:

You've never worked at UPS I can tell.
I worked there for way too long and I know that this level of screw up is 100% possible. I have seen all sorts of screw ups and miss shipments, packages will label swaps etc. I have seen labels come off and stick to walls, belts, other packages, and more. So trying to blame Amazon or the other shipper is barking up the wrong tree. As soon as I noticed it had gone through UPS I knew that the mix up happened in UPS somewhere somehow.
--snip--

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Before you posted, I also said:

Labels [highlight]may[/highlight] have been crossed - even that has not been determined. UPS [highlight]may[/highlight] have delivered to wrong city/wrong address - that has not been determined.

Only thing determined is that something went very wrong, perhaps on multiple levels........if the media report is accurate and that remains to be seen. Entirely too much information is missing to make a reasonable assessment.

Grapeshot said:

Before you posted, I also said:

Labels [highlight]may[/highlight] have been crossed - even that has not been determined. UPS [highlight]may[/highlight] have delivered to wrong city/wrong address - that has not been determined.

Only thing determined is that something went very wrong, perhaps on multiple levels........if the media report is accurate and that remains to be seen. Entirely too much information is missing to make a reasonable assessment.

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I'll grant you that.

I used to work at UPS and have seen all sorts of things happen there. So my first thought it that it happened at UPS.

Some one was stealing firearms through UPS. I don't remember the details but the ATF was snooping around our building big time.

Polynikes said:

Am I the only person who finds this story a bit suspicious? On the heels of two mass shootings, an innocent man living in our nations capital who just wanted a new TV mistakenly receives a terrifying looking "assault weapon" that is conveniently banned in his city. The news media trumpet's the headlines and people shake their collective heads in disgust that such dangerous weapons are just lying around. I mean, what if a child or a criminal had ordered that TV instead?

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You are not the only one, by any means. The sniff test results are not looking good to me.

Here's the guy taking about it in a news interview.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/seattle...er-orders-tv-gets-assault-rifle-30232758.html

Listening to him makes me think he called Police because he did want anyone to ever have have this bad bad military grade gun.

jbone said:

Here's the guy taking about it in a news interview.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/seattle...er-orders-tv-gets-assault-rifle-30232758.html

Listening to him makes me think he called Police because he did want anyone to ever have have this bad bad military grade gun.

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As I said, it was a shipment to a ffl..from an flls .. 1000% legal. 1 million deliveries and 1 wrong one, eh .. not too bad. The guy who got it has been clearly brain washed well. If you randomly sent a nuke to a person in the US, would you expect a mushroom cloud? No.

Similar experience

Several years ago, I had a similar experience. I ordered a couple of magazines for one of my pistols from an out of state dealer I had done business with in the past. (name shall be withheld) One afternoon about a week later, there was a package addressed to me waiting on my front steps.

I thought it was a bit heavy for magazines and was very surprised to find it was EA Witness in .45 cal. The paperwork inside was addressed to an FFL located in another city.

After contemplating hitting the range with "my new pistol", I called the dealer and reported their little mistake. I was thanked profusely and given Shipping instructions to return it to them.

They then said that they would re-ship my magazines and throw in an extra one for my trouble.

p85 said:

Several years ago, I had a similar experience. I ordered a couple of magazines for one of my pistols from an out of state dealer I had done business with in the past. (name shall be withheld) One afternoon about a week later, there was a package addressed to me waiting on my front steps.

I thought it was a bit heavy for magazines and was very surprised to find it was EA Witness in .45 cal. The paperwork inside was addressed to an FFL located in another city.

After contemplating hitting the range with "my new pistol", I called the dealer and reported their little mistake. I was thanked profusely and given Shipping instructions to return it to them.

They then said that they would re-ship my magazines and throw in an extra one for my trouble.

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That is the right way, the honorable, way to have handled it. Thank you, sir.

Grapeshot said:

That is the right way, the honorable, way to have handled it. Thank you, sir.

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My momma always told me "don't touch what ain't yours" .... smart girl

Grapeshot said:

That is the right way, the honorable, way to have handled it. Thank you, sir.

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While you are correct, my good sir, it's still fun to fantasize.


But the situations are a bit different between the two cases. Case 1, Order a TV from, lets say, Best Buy and a box with rifle shows up instead. Case 2 order gun parts from gun dealer and someone in house does a shipping mix up. Case 2 you're only dealing with one shipper so it's a little different. Case 1 It would appear that there are 2 shippers and so the shipping company (UPS) screws up and their insurance eats it. I know that UPS is more than happy to screw it's customers (I've seen it in house while working there) so.... To me there is a bit of moral difference. Case 2 is an honest mistake and from a gun culture shop. Case 1 is where UPS should be the one taken to task for the screw up legally even if the guy kept the rifle.

This is only my opinion though. Stealing from a corporation is not stealing in my mind because they are not real. Stealing from my fellow 'man' is very wrong though. (Yes collecting socialist security is accepting stolen goods)

Freedom1Man said:

While you are correct, my good sir, it's still fun to fantasize.


But the situations are a bit different between the two cases. Case 1, Order a TV from, lets say, Best Buy and a box with rifle shows up instead. Case 2 order gun parts from gun dealer and someone in house does a shipping mix up. Case 2 you're only dealing with one shipper so it's a little different. Case 1 It would appear that there are 2 shippers and so the shipping company (UPS) screws up and their insurance eats it. I know that UPS is more than happy to screw it's customers (I've seen it in house while working there) so.... To me there is a bit of moral difference. Case 2 is an honest mistake and from a gun culture shop. Case 1 is where UPS should be the one taken to task for the screw up legally even if the guy kept the rifle.

This is only my opinion though. Stealing from a corporation is not stealing in my mind because they are not real. Stealing from my fellow 'man' is very wrong though. (Yes collecting socialist security is accepting stolen goods)

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:banghead: Ya did good up to that point.

Stealing/theft from any business hurts everyone - it drives up the cost of doing business.

Grapeshot said:

That is the right way, the honorable, way to have handled it. Thank you, sir.

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+1

jbone said:

I'm sure with the other label he could have contacted the gun dealer, first, to see if there's any way they could retrieve them, first.

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It would be difficult to try to mail it back in a city as repressive as DC. Here in Kentucky, I can mail firearms to FFLs every day. The same is not true of DC. He would have likely been arrested at some point during the mailing process for mere possession of a firearm without the proper papers.

p85 lives in a relatively free state, it is highly dissimilar to the person in the article. Also, p85 is, at least in this way, smarter than the person in the article. p85 probably don't think he received a mindless killing machine (it could be argued that way though).

So I don't fault the guy as much as I fault the system he lives in.