Bad trade with gnw1209: no comm. or knife

futurencswat said:
I can see im in the minority here, but he is just a kid. If all of us got punished to the full extent of the law for things we did as kids, many of us would have been in jail and may even still be there. I know I did some stupid things when I was younger, granted I didn't scam anyone out of there $100+ knives. This kid is probably scared straight. Im sure Jeff told him what could have happened to him as far as the law goes when he talked to him on the phone. He apologized and everyone is getting there knives back. Sometimes you have to live and learn......
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I agree. :thumbup:

Here at Bladeforums, we have seen many others be forgiven for equally, if not more, grievous offenses. If not exactly forgiven, they got of the hook by disappearing from BFC entirely.

Garrett manned-up and admitted his wrongdoing to us and his Grandmother (no easy task, I'm sure.)

He is attempting to rectify the situation.

Am I saying to give him a break? No.

But give him a chance, for fuck's sake...

Simply by still being here and trying to remedy this, when so many would have simply ran away, he has shown that there might be some hope for him yet.

Let's not crush that hope by continuing to pile on while he tries to pick himself back up.

Give the kid a chance.

I'm just saying...
 
I know what the COPPA standards are, but I'm of the opinion that children that young shouldn't be allowed access to the Internet at all -- not without direct, real-time adult supervision the entire time they're operating the computer. The cutoff for the forum may be 13 or 14, but in a perfect world, no one under 18 would be posting or even reading here.
 
markksr said:
I agree. :thumbup:

Here at Bladeforums, we have seen many others be forgiven for equally, if not more, grievous offenses. If not exactly forgiven, they got of the hook by disappearing from BFC entirely.

Garrett manned-up and admitted his wrongdoing to us and his Grandmother (no easy task, I'm sure.)

He is attempting to rectify the situation.

Am I saying to give him a break? No.

But give him a chance, for fuck's sake...

Simply by still being here and trying to remedy this, when so many would have simply ran away, he has shown that there might be some hope for him yet.

Let's not crush that hope by continuing to pile on while he tries to pick himself back up.

Give the kid a chance.

I'm just saying...
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Mark, I agree with 99% of what you're saying. My issues lie in the bold part of your post. My emphasis added.

I still don't believe he manned-up nor apologized until he finally realized he was busted. Had it not been for the work done by Jeff and the others here, and had he not put his phone number on his website, I don't think anyone would have gotten their stuff back. The only reason he apologized is because he got caught.

Does he deserve to be banned? That's not up to me, nor will I express my opinions.

All I'm saying is that if he wasn't so stupid to leave a trail to his home, there wouldn't have been any manning-up nor an apology. The items in question wouldn't be on the way back to their rightful owners either.
 
SPXTrader said:
Mark, I agree with 99% of what you're saying. My issues lie in the bold part of your post. My emphasis added.

I still don't believe he manned-up nor apologized until he finally realized he was busted. Had it not been for the work done by Jeff and the others here, and had he not put his phone number on his website, I don't think anyone would have gotten their stuff back. The only reason he apologized is because he got caught.

Does he deserve to be banned? That's not up to me, nor will I express my opinions.

All I'm saying is that if he wasn't so stupid to leave a trail to his home, there wouldn't have been any manning-up nor an apology. The items in question wouldn't be on the way back to their rightful owners either.
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+1

The only reason any of this got worked out is because he was caught. He was forced to man up after the fact. I just hope the kid didn't send me any of the stuff he stole for my "prize".

Doing the right thing on your own and being forced to do it are very different.
 
SPXTrader said:
...The only reason he apologized is because he got caught.
...
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rmc85 said:
...
Doing the right thing on your own and being forced to do it are very different.
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I believe you are both absolutely correct.

My point was simply that perhaps this forum, which has in the past been so willing to "forgive" other (more popular) members, could maybe find a small bit of mercy in their hearts for a 14 year old who just might be young enough still to learn a valuable life lesson from this...
 
markksr said:
My point was simply that perhaps this forum, which has in the past been so willing to "forgive" other (more popular) members, could maybe find a small bit of mercy in their hearts for a 14 year old who just might be young enough still to learn a valuable life lesson from this...
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I'm all for that. :thumbup:
 
markksr said:
My point was simply that perhaps this forum, which has in the past been so willing to "forgive" other (more popular) members, could maybe find a small bit of mercy in their hearts for a 14 year old who just might be young enough still to learn a valuable life lesson from this...
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+1:thumbup::thumbup:
 
I have nothing to do with this situation, but in my opinion, he should be banned. I don't feel comfortable having people like this in our community. I also agree that if he was not persued like he was, we would still be looking for an end result. 14 or 44, this kind of action definately deserves a perma-ban! Just my way of looking at it......
 
I doubt he's going to post here after this fiasco anyway. Maybe under a different account, but probably not at all.

Either one of two things are going to happen:

1) Garrett will see how he screwed up, and he'll never try anything like this again.

2) Garrett will see how he screwed up, and he'll be a better thief next time.

I sincerely hope it's the former and not the latter. Any kid who had an outdoor-affiliated channel on YouTube can't be all bad. It shows he is interested in a world beyond material gain. Perhaps he needs better mentors to get involved in that side of his life. Since he lives with a guardian grandmother, I guess (though I may be wrong) that he lacks some consistent guidance that he might otherwise have had with a father in the home.


Edited to add: I do still think Garrett ought to have to earn enough money to pay back postage costs incurred by members in sending these knives to him. They invested their time and money in good faith trades. The time was for naught, and the money was ill-spent. These members should not have to pay unwillingly to teach a young man a lesson.
 
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I would like someone to explain to me why a 14-year-old kid should be allowed to trade knives on a forum, regardless of his recent attempt at defrauding other fellow members of their knives.
 
LorenzoL said:
I would like someone to explain to me why a 14-year-old kid should be allowed to trade knives on a forum, regardless of his recent attempt at defrauding other fellow members of their knives.
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I've been following this thread and am glad to see that it is ending up well for the OP and everyone else that got scammed. This is a case that proves that the GB&U works.

That said, I agree with the quoted statement. While I know there are many fine teen members of BFC, I don't believe they should be allowed to participate in the exchange. The problem of course is that you can't tell age over the internet, so there's really no way to enforce it.
 
Maybe if he is not banned his user name should be changed to his real name, first and last. This way his "growth" would be easy to follow and should he attempt to re-offend he will be clearly identifiable prior to one of us thinking GSW whatever is someone else.
 
futurencswat said:
I can see im in the minority here, but he is just a kid. If all of us got punished to the full extent of the law for things we did as kids, many of us would have been in jail and may even still be there. I know I did some stupid things when I was younger, granted I didn't scam anyone out of there $100+ knives. This kid is probably scared straight. Im sure Jeff told him what could have happened to him as far as the law goes when he talked to him on the phone. He apologized and everyone is getting there knives back. Sometimes you have to live and learn......
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Would you feel the same if it was your items of interest or knives/collectables that he swindled out of you. This kid did not go into a store and steal candy or sneak into a movie w/out paying, he stole several hundreds of dollars (maybe more if ALL the knives are higher value) worth of items from trusting people. He conned people into believing a false agreement. Its more than material objects, its a trust issue now, with the affected people. How is that going to get fixed? If he is not banned, at the least he should have to work at retrieving his BF privilege, because belonging to this forum is a privilege IMO.
 
wolfmann601 said:
Maybe if he is not banned his user name should be changed to his real name, first and last.
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I think that's been suggested before, maybe even required, for members returning from a ban. Might be a good idea. If he has to live up to and make his name, maybe he'd walk the straight and narrow.

BTW, I do understand the desire to ban him. A good bit of money was in play, and quite a few victims were scammed. Haven't seen too much out of the mods in this thread though. I've just seen one or two of them reading it.
 
I do not sell here but I had always thought you had to be 18 years old to buy knives online(and in a b&m store) Is it different for trades? I would not trade with a child .I had almost traded with Garrett but I had no idea of his age and now I will always ask ,I was misled by his profile stating he is a store owner and I think that was the idea behind his profile . I do not think he should be banned but he needs to make good on the shipping charges and make sure every persons items are returned ,after all is made good and after enough time (YEARS) he could be allowed to trade again but if it takes threats to get him to do the right thing he should be turned in to law enforcement.I think if he is allowed to keep his membership he should have to list his real name,home addy,e-mail addy and working phone# in his profile as insurance to others and a reminder to him.
 
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onado2000 said:
Would you feel the same if it was your items of interest or knives/collectables that he swindled out of you. This kid did not go into a store and steal candy or sneak into a movie w/out paying, he stole several hundreds of dollars (maybe more if ALL the knives are higher value) worth of items from trusting people. He conned people into believing a false agreement. Its more than material objects, its a trust issue now, with the affected people. How is that going to get fixed? If he is not banned, at the least he should have to work at retrieving his BF privilege, because belonging to this forum is a privilege IMO.
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Yes, I would. I had a dirt bike stolen from me a few years ago, worth $1500. It was stolen by a 17 year old. I was upset because he took something that I worked hard to get but with that said I forgave him. He returned what he could to others and he had to pay me back in payments. They are kids, they screw up. Nowadays no one is teaching these kids that they have to work hard for what they want. This kid probably got on this forum and saw all the great knives and wanted some for himself. Kids will be kids, they screw up. He didn't cause anybody physical harm or emotional harm. He learned a valuable lesson the hard way. He scammed, was caught and embarrassed within this whole community. Let him take his lesson and work towards being a man, instead of kicking the kid while he's down.
 
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what he needs is a good slap on the head! too bad, it seems there is no positive male role model for him.

a few slaps worked wonders for me. i feared my dad more then friends or authorities. justice was swift and deserved.

great that he came forward, apologized, and folks are gettin their stuff back. i think it is more because of his grandmas urging. hopefully he checks his behavior. next time he might not get off so light.
 
"He's just a kid" is not an excuse. He's old enough to know better and shouldn't even be trading knives.

He did not "apologize" (still don't get how you can apologize over the internet) until members found out his personal information and said they were going to take action. He got caught, plain and simple. He did what every criminal does when they get caught, and I don't think he should be let off with just returning the items. I can't speak for those individuals that had to put up with this, but I'd be really upset. It's not my place to say if he gets banned or not, but in my opinion he deserves a perma-ban.
 
Count me in on the No Sympathy side. Also why all the talk of redemtion already? Have folks recieved what they are owed yet? Let's hear that all the property has been returned before even considering giving this kid anything positive in nature. Sorry if I sound harse but I know that my old man would still toss me a beating for pulling something like this and I am 39!!!! There has got to be a no tolerance rule with this type of behavior.
 
I'm more than sure this kid is more sorry about getting rumbled than any thing else.

The kid is still here "manning up" because he is clearly a total wido, he is wide enough to skin more than a few good folks out of their goods, does any one really think getting grabbed this time is going to change him ? He probably does stuff like this to his boys at school too and when he is older I bet he will be one of the "gets high but never buys guys" :thumbdn:
 
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