Simple story. Guy orders a TV from Amazon. Delivery company drops a $2,132 SIG716 Patrol Rifle outside his apartment door. Seth Horvitz opens the box, freaks out and calls the D.C. police. Cops take the gun. Amazon stays stum. His local Fox affiliate resists calling the SIG an assault rifle but ipso facto it’s a big deal. Just in case you missed the duh-duh-DUH, the web editor adds a statement from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership Violence: “Clearly, it’s a dangerous situation in America when assault weapons are so prevalent and can so easily end up in the wrong hands, especially given that the rifle was left on the doorstep. Thank goodness, Mr. Horvitz and his wife alerted the Metropolitan police right away. This mishap could have led to another tragedy.” Can someone please give the Brady Bunch something important to worry about? [h/t to MP]

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

69 COMMENTS

        • I think he forgot to [sarc]. Tone doesn’t always translate well in these here interwebz. Lighten up a little.

      • Oh Amazon must have sold out. Can’t find any listed….LOL….yes, I know they don’t sell them, but thought I’d check anyhow. I’m laughing with you Rosignol.

  2. I am, literally, green with envy right now. Also, how in the world are they trying to blame amazon? They don’t even have guns on their website. That sounds a lot more like fed ex/ups/usps screwed the pooch big time.

  3. It’s a sad, sad day when a man panics and calls the po po because he encounters a gun.

    A real man would have laughed and called the shipping company.

        • Bang! Bang! Bang!

          Hello? Yes. Y’all shipped me a very accurate and reliable SIG instead of a TV. Wife is pissed, but I couldn’t be happier. Right now, there’s probably someone out there waiting for a sweet gun who got a lame ass TV instead. You might want to look into it.

        • Some poor delivery guy has some explaining to do. I hope it don’t cost em their job over an honest mistake. But I’m sure the DC police, FBI, IRS, our well respected Head of the DOJ, the gated community security guard (whom I have the most trust in), neighborhood watch team and local news investigators are all over it. Why didn’t the NSA intercept the delivery notification and stop this before it happened? All this fine hi tech security watch and information grabbing and they missed a gun being delivered to the wrong address!! Geez, maybe I need to order more TV’s and high capacity remotes to protect myself. Hey sorry its 3 in the morning. Got to have some humor.

  4. Or called the guy who should have received the weapon and asked what he wanted to do. If the shipper could screw it up once he might want it shipped via a different company.

    • Unless the package was addressed to the Wash DC Po-leece Dept, in which case it might just be a case of “package? never saw a package at my front door.”

      • Yep, I think that one would have gone into my gun safe and I would have called Amazon complainng that my TV didn’t arrive.

  5. (the police) “then said we’ll handle this weapon because it’s illegal to keep here. It’s illegal to transport in a car, so it can’t be returned.”
    “D.C. Police also says it is illegal to a transport weapon across the D.C. line.”

    The nanny state knows what’s right for you to own and not own. Just ignore all the dangers from society and keep paying your taxes so government can keep writing laws to make even more things illegal.

  6. Sounds like the seller will have a visit by the ATF and will be investigated to make sure he is following all firearm related laws.

    I wonder if the gun store in PA received the TV….

    • I know, right? Of course, the only cases we’d hear about are the ones where the person isn’t a Person of the Gun who wouldn’t either A) not make a big deal about it as they called the shipping company and took care of the issue or B) if they were slightly less honest, just STFU and kept the rifle. Although B is probably a bad idea, because the shipping company can figure out where they delivered the package.

  8. This makes me very, very sad. On the other hand, some cop just got himself a nice new rifle.

  9. Why can’t accidents like this happen to me? BRB, gonna go order a TV from Amazon…

    • 🙂

      Maybe if I order a book from Amazon I’ll get the Ruger LCR .357 with the Hogue grips. Maybe if I order two books I’ll get the gun and ammo.

  10. It’s only a miracle the DC police didn’t arrest the man. After all, he was in possession of a firearm against DC law!

  11. If I didn’t know some other man would be looking for his $2,000 Sig, I wouldn’t tell a soul.

  13. What I want to know is why is this guy opening a package that doesn’t have his name on it? Since Amazon doesn’t sell guns, I’m guessing the shipping carrier messed up on delivery, I get my neighbor’s mail all the time and just walk it over to them. The guy who received it can’t play it off and say he thought it was the TV unless the TV he ordered what shaped really weird. And who knows, maybe the TV will still show up to his door.

    • Chewbaca Defense and UteNinja: It wasn’t a delivery company mistake, and he didn’t open a package that had someone else’s name on it. From the article:

      The shipping label on the box had Horvitz’s name and address, but the invoice inside the box indicated it should have been shipped to a gun shop in Pennsylvania.

      Reading is FUNdamental.

        • Yes and No,

          Working in the shipping industry we see stuff like this from time to time. FedEx/UPS/USPS recycles tracking numbers. These numbers are suppose to be out of the system after 30 days. Depending on how they are provisioned (not always in a logical way) the shipping system simply asked for the info for a particular tracking # and printed what it was given. Operating procedure should be to match the label to the invoice. Somebody in the shipping dept got lazy. Chances are, this person ordered something from Amazon within the last 30 days. By chance, this tracking # was a duplicate and was being reused. In many cases, most people get the wrong package and delivery company handles it because they know its their systems that made the mistake.

          You can blame the idiot at the distribution center for the firearm why they do not double check out going packages or matched the label to the invoice.

          I see here an oppurtunity to make a big deal out of a normal everyday mistake. ATF will get involved for sure and so will the Postal Inspectors (the ones who do carry guns) and it will be big mess for something that the shipping companies know is a common error that does happen from time to time.

        • Odd. EVERY time I’ve shipped FedEx, USPS, or UPS, they take the shipping info and assign the tracking number to that. The label ALWAYS show the correct shipping info. (tracking/id numbers not withstanding)

    • THAT is a good question, did the rifle come in a box shaped like a TV?
      I’m gonna take a wild guess and say NO. Both the delivers fault for wrong address AND that guy should have been arrested because opening mail that is not yours is a FEDERAL OFFENCE!

  14. This story is a rather perfect overall statement on the pathetic state of the general American public. A person willfully orders an appliance that conveys nothing but distraction, filth, misinformation, and manufactured “reality” and instead receives a tool that symbolizes, protects, and demands responsibility and the spirit of American self-reliance.

    And he calls his government nannies so they can come take the offending item away and return him to his distractions and manufactured reality.

  15. I’d have just kept my mouth shut and enjoyed the donation. Certainly beats a tv any day of the week

  16. What a whimp…he didn’t have to call the cops, just the shipping company. He obviously is an anti with his nutz in his wife’s purse and wanted to make headlines. I would have been figuring out how to keep that Sig! Early X-Mas! When they finally figured it out and came to pick it up, it would have had about 1000 rounds through it. 😉

  17. OK, I’ve been holding back, but I can’t anymore. Picture #4, can I please make a “He looks like a mincing hipster” comment?

  18. what legal implications were there for keeping this unexpected “gift” i have a lot to lose in my life to be flirting with possible criminal charges over an innocent screw up like this. the shipping companies have lawyers on retainer, i do not.

  19. Nevermind the fact that it’s IMPOSSIBLE to buy a gun off Amazon.com… maybe I’ll start ordering some cheap-ass TVs with the hopes that shipping gods drop off a sweet new SIG rifle at my house!

  20. Uh, to everybody whining and calling this guy a “sheep of the many state” because he called the cops, can I ask you to stop and think about this for a second? This guy orders a TV. What he gets is a rifle. And he lives in DC, sooooo, I don’t think its a far stretch to assume he does not in fact have a license for firearms. So this guy is now in possession of one of the most tightly regulated items in America, in the decidedly un-gun friendly Capitol, illegaly even if he does have a license wife, y’know, he didn’t buy it and all.

    • If I had the misfortune to live in DC I’d have done the same. Given that we’ve had people prosecuted for owning a machine gun because their AR malfunctioned this guy could have been in a world of hurt.

      I’m also going to say that the Brady Bunch does have a small point here. While I think our FFL system is hopelessly pointless and outdated, certainly firearms should be sent “signature required.” 😉

  21. Uh, to everybody whining and calling this guy a “sheep of the Nany state” because he called the cops, can I ask you to stop and think about this for a second? This guy orders a TV. What he gets is a rifle. And he lives in DC, sooooo, I don’t think its a far stretch to assume he does not in fact have a license for firearms. So this guy is now in possession of one of the most tightly regulated items in America, in the decidedly un-gun friendly Capitol, illegaly even if he does have a license since, y’know, he didn’t buy it and all. I’d sure call the cops, because I’d bet that if he’d try returning the rifle through amazon, this post would be about DC persecuting this poor schmoe for what ever they could make stick. probably, anyway.

    • I think he took the best course of action to maintain his freedom and avoid a lengthy prison term and heavy fine. I would love to be able to afford a SIG716. But I would have done the same thing, …reluctantly.

    • Uh Gunuk………HE OPENED A PACKAGE THAT WAS NOT HIS D.A.!!!! THAT IS A FEDERAL OFFENCE!!! DUH!
      HE IS THE CRIMINAL HERE, NO TV COMES IN A PACKAGE SHAPED LIKE A RIFLE! Try thinking before commenting, ignorance is not bliss,
      it’s just annoying.

  24. I was talking to a hunting friend of mine yesterday 8/7/12 in my store. He has a friend with a farm of several acres who, between plantings lets my friend go shooting on his land. So naturally the conversation centered around GUNS and SHOOTING. Well, this “man” who was there with his family members and I use the term “man” in a biological scene only, becomes livid ans storms out cursing me, my friend, and GUNS (very scarey, don’t you know). So I ask the woman he was with, turns out to be his sister, whether he was a crime victim or if some sort of gun tragedy had befallen his circle of interest. Well no, he was upset because his nephew had gotten permission to buy a f’ng PLASTIC space ray gun, (steam punk if your familiar). A totally display only item, not for play. Very delicate, kind of expensive with a stand for display. The trigger is a molded part of the body and does not move, there isn’t even a phoney muzzle hole for a pretend photon to emit from. But, by his reaction you would think I was selling the kid a grenade launcher with ammo. These are the types that vote for gun banning.

  25. I think there’s law(s) that if you get something delivered to you that you didn’t order it’s yours to keep. The delivery company is responsible for replacing the lost delivery.

    I don’t know if this is still how it works, but I know it used to be that way when I was a young man. I imagine it had something to do with companies shipping you something you didn’t order and then billing you for it.

    I’m the kind of person that would run own a guy that dropped a hundred dollar bill to give it back to him. I don’t know that I would have called the cops, but I sure as heck would have called the delivery company.

    Since when do they package rifles in boxes comparable to the size of a TV?

  26. Ordering a TV and getting a rifle is nothing to be upset about. Now, if I ordered a rifle and got a TV, I’d be truly pissed.

  28. Thank goodness, Mr. Horvitz and his wife alerted the Metropolitan police right away. This mishap could have led to another tragedy.

    Having the delivery driver make an extra stop to pick it up again hardly qualifies as a tragedy.

    • Wait! Sigs come preloaded now? I guess he could have dropped it on his foot and sustained a nasty bruise

    • The tragedy is this reactionary idjit forgot he was an American, and instead thought he was a subject of the Duke of D.C. and not subject to the constitution.

  29. The gun must have jumped out of the packaging and mugged him. Why else would he have reacted in such a way?

    • Easy – they have been well indoctrinated by the school system, the government and their media lackeys to hate and abhor anything firearm-related, and literally fear for their lives when they see anything with a lock, stock, and barrel. The politicans (like the future commanderer-in-chief and her Feinsteinian gaggle, following her predecessors lead) are quite happy their brainwashing is working so well…

  31. [Shipping company stops by asking about rifle]
    Me: What box?
    Them: The one we left on your doorstep yesterday.
    Me: I’ve been at home all week, don’t know what you’re talking about.
    Them: Our driver says he dropped the wrong box at your house yesterday.
    Me: Might want to ask him what he really did with it…. Good day.

    • Might have gone to the same place as the 10-pack of PMAGs that got dropped off at 5:30 p.m. at my house a few days ago. I got home at between 5:45 and 6:00, and I never even saw ’em.

Comments are closed.