Man Orders TV, Gets Assault Rifle Instead
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iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Dinner party conversation can be difficult, but for Seth Horvitz, the high-caliber assault rifle he mistakenly received through Amazon.com was the perfect centerpiece.
Horvitz was immediately suspicious of the package that arrived on his doorstep Tuesday because its size and shape didn’t appear to match the flat screen television he’d ordered. Expecting a used Westinghouse 39-inch LED television that he ordered from a third party vendor on Amazon, what he found instead was a 7.6 pound, 37-inch-long Sig Sauer SIG716.
“I was just in shock and in disbelief really,” Horvitz told ABC News in a phone interview.
“I flagged down the UPS guy on his way out of the building and asked him if there is anything else for me, thinking there would be multiple boxes,” he said. “I thought the box could be accessories for the TV.”
But there was nothing else for Horvitz in the UPS truck, and he didn’t have much time to panic – guests soon started arriving for a North African, Mediterranean-themed dinner party he was hosting. But not even the exotic cuisine could distract from the Swiss assault rifle on display in the apartment.
“We were all kind of nervously joking about it for awhile,” Horvitz said. “Everyone was asking about the gun, and they started looking up information about it.”
And what they discovered is that it’s illegal to possess assault rifles in the District of Columbia. Horvitz said as soon as he realized it was an illegal weapon, he contacted D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.
There is a pending investigation as to how the mishap occurred.
The third-party vendor told ABC News it had no immediate comment. Independence Gun Shop, the Duncansville, Pa., gun retail shop from which the assault rifle originated, has not responded to a request for comment.
Horvitz filed a complaint with Amazon, but the company is not responsible for shipping products from third party vendors.
There’s still no word on what happened to the television, but Horvitz has been fully refunded.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio