Today in TechCustomer orders television through Amazon, gets a gun instead
It's been a pretty weird year so far in terms of Amazon customers getting strange things shipped to them. In January, a student ordered a textbook through the site and received a $400 bag of cocaine. Now, a Washington, D.C. man who ordered a new TV from one of Amazon's sellers was sent an actual semi-automatic rifle.
Seth Horvitz tells DCist that he had purchased a flat-screen HDTV for he and his wife from one of Amazon's affiliated sellers. What arrived was a decidedly non-TV shaped box containing a Sig Sauer SIG716, a $2,000 rifle manufactured by Swiss Arms AG.
Semi-automatic firearms like the SIG716 are actually illegal in Washington, D.C. and even transporting them through the state is a serious crime. Horvitz called the cops upon discovering the box's content, which was smart since keeping it in his home — or transporting it in his car — could have landed him in serious trouble otherwise. Attempting to return it could also have been very, very bad.
Evidently, the weapon was intended for a gun shop in Pennsylvania but wound up with Horvitz instead. According to the baffled shopper, his name and address appeared on the shipping label along with at least one other.
D.C. police told Horwitz they've never seen anything like this epic shipping slip-up before. There's no word on the fate of his television or what Amazon intends to do in order to rectify the situation, but we're guessing there's a gun collector somewhere who's just as puzzled by the unwanted TV they just received.
[Image credit: David Cole]
[via The Verge]
This article was written by Randy Nelson and originally appeared on Tecca
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