Does the FBI send out letters if you bought an illegal knife online in California?

D

dude0877

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Jun 13, 2011
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just curious as i just moved to California and regarding butterfly knives (as well as Switchblades/automatics) i know they are illegal here...but i just read a Yahoo question/answer about buying illegal knives online while living in CA. the yahoo answer-man said that he received his butterfly knife, but 2 months later received an actual hard letter from the FBI. said it started with, Dear Criminal. blah blah, do what we say to avoid legal action.

he said that the letter included an envelope for him to return the knife to the FBI.

i guess my question is...has this happened to anybody you know? how does the FBI find out, since we all know it's just as illegal to sell and ship certain knives?

has anyone been able to buy "illegal" knives online and keep the knife inside your house at all times...and stay out of trouble with the FBI?
 
First thing to remember is Yahoo! Answers is complete crap. In the last few years the site has been flooding with morons asking trolling questions or giving made-up trolling answers. The kind that need a visit from Jay and Silent Bob. Unless an answer on there has a link to a direct reliable source that you can independently verify, ignore it.

The allegation made by this person contains a critical flaw: It is not illegal to buy or own butterfly knives in California in the first place. The federal law only makes them illegal to sell over state lines, and nothing else. And it is the seller that breaks the law, not the buyer. Similarly, in California it is illegal to sell or carry a butterfly knife if the blade is 2 inches or more in length. But there is no law against the buyer, and owning them is perfectly legal. And if the blade is under 2 inches long, you can even carry it concealed in most counties.

Unlike Yahoo! Answers, I can prove it. Here is a link to the laws in California. Check “Penal Code” and search for 653k.
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html
 
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Throw the letter away, legally you never received it unless it is certified or delivered by a certified process server. If it is official, which I doubt the story is true, they will find you. You have no legal obligation to comply with anything in that letter, give any information, or answer any questions whatsoever. Again, if it were real. I think the story/posting is false.
 
Knifecenter sent me a Bear & Sons el cheapo one... no problems, no questions, no nothing.
 
A letter?!! If the FBI were going to take an interest they'd start by going through a coworkers garbage looking for something to blackmail them into cooperating with an investigation into your personal life. Next would be a camera across the street from your house/apartment and a detailed look into your taxes and medical records. Finally they would go through your garbage trying to find deviant nudie pics or something to coerce you into cooperating so you reveal any co conspirators that also purchased illegal knives through the USPS....
 
I personally think that, that is complete bs. Doesn't the fbi have much more important things to deal with. Some other type of law enforcement would deal with that if anyone at all imo.
 
hey, thanks for the common sense! for some reason i needed it.

personally, i bet the "letter" was sent from the buyers friend or coworker who knew he had that nice knife...and included the self address envelope to see if he would send him the infamous knife! kind of like stabbing him in the back...pun intended! shoot, we should all try this idea and see what kind of goodies we get in our mailbox!

thanks again for educating me and knocking me back into place! now i return to looking for the long lost Spyderco balisongs.
 
I am 110% sure the FBI does not send letters out that start with "Dear Criminal".
 
I would verify the contact information (return address on envelope and the purported shipping address), and if it doesn't match up to any known FBI office (search on Google), you should forward the letter to the REAL FBI and let them know that someone is impersonating them.
 
Bamboozled... hoodwinked...
 
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