How Do You Confuse An MP3 Player With A Handgun?

from the where-do-you-think-the-hard-drive-is? dept

Maybe some people really do need eBay middlemen to help them properly handle their internet auctions. A young man in Canada thought he had ordered an MP3 player via eBay, and when the box arrived it said it was an MP3 player - but on opening the package, that MP3 player turned out to be a handgun and a gun license. The man quickly called police who took the handgun away (though, he did get to photocopy the gun license as a souvenir). The pawn shop that accidentally sent the gun instead of the MP3 player is shipping him the MP3 player now. You do have to wonder if someone else received an MP3 player instead of a gun, though. Of course, you have to wonder about a few other things as well. eBay banned fire arm sales years ago, so are some people using fake MP3 player auctions to sell fire arms, and assuming any buyer knows what they're getting? Furthermore, since when can you get your gun owner's license over eBay as well? The whole thing sounds very odd.
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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2004 @ 4:47pm

    Story Light on Facts

    You need more info before making judgment calls.

    For example, let's assume the shop made legitimate firearm sales as well as ebay sales for electronic items. Let's assume they made a firearm sale to one person and an ebay sale to another.

    In order to ship the firearm, the shop required the gun purchaser to send them his gun license before they would complete the sale. They would then ship back the owner's license in the same box that they shipped his firearm.

    In the mean time, the store finally found someone on ebay to unload that MP3 player on.

    Larry, back in shipping, mixed up the shipping lables on the Ebay sale with the legitimate firearm sale.

    Could it be a worse case scenario? Sure: terrorist gun smuggling, illegal sales to gangs, a planned Canadian invasion of the U.S. This is why I am sure ATF and maybe even FBI is already on this as well as the Mounties. In the end, however, I bet this turns out to be something like the first scenario rather than one of the worst case ones.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    Mike (profile), 11 May 2004 @ 5:03pm

    Re: Story Light on Facts

    Indeed. I wasn't implying any "worst case scenario." I was just asking questions.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    bob, 20 May 2004 @ 5:18am

    Re: Story Light on Facts

    For a Federal Firearms Licensee to ship a weapon, he has to ship to another FFL if he is shipping out of state. The FFLs trade original signed copies of their licenses. Normally the receiver mails his license then the shipper includes his license in with the weapon.

    I bet the pawn shop got the two boxes mixed up... so their is a gun dealer out there with a shiny new MP3 player.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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