The door bell rang and I thought it was the Fedex leaving me a box from ucdavis, when I went to the door there were a man and a lady with badges asking to speak with me. They were from the FBI office. They received a tip that I've been buying a large amount of fertilizer and that I can be using them to make a bomb. 

You will probably have surveillance on you for awhile, if it hasn't been on you already.

The combination of your name and the buying of fertilizer, which is a key component of homemade bombs, jumped you to the top of their list.

This won't be the last time you get a visit.

______________
Dominick
Zone 6a-MA

lol. Did they tell you how much fertilizer you can give your trees before they can be used as explosives?

You little nursery business is the perfect cover for buying fertilizer for making bombs. Better pay with cash for a while.

Bass. Sorry to hear about your little visit. Hopefully their concerns were put to rest when they saw what you were using it for.

I had a little visit from the BATFE myself a couple of years ago. Once they checked my place out, they realized I wasn't much of a threat. No citations of any sort. Just sniffed around & asked a few questions. Haven't heard from them since. Just sharing this because I know it can be a little nerve racking even though you've done nothing wrong.

I wouldn't sweat it. Even if you do ever get another visit, just make sure you have some ripe figs on hand to give them :-) . Wait a minute though, if you do that they might be back once every week!!

That is why I use Pig Poo compost there is no tracking of the fertilizer at the pig farm....

Wonder if home depot cashiers are federal agents in disquise.

Those were friends of mine.  They were supposed to get you to give up the name of the mystery fig so I could win some cuttings.  ;)

Totally kidding, and holy cow, scary stuff!  I understand, but man ... that's wild.

Could be making some exploding figs.

Ever watch the Three Stooges episode with the goose that laid the exploding eggs? Or was it a chicken?

Like Jason said, Figrenades. LOL

Go organic my friend: And then if they want to search through that "fertilizer" they are most welcomed to.

Wow, they musta found out about me sending you a secret package of my Iranian goods i sent last month... (fig cuttings that is :) ). But in all serious, I assume they know about yer website so that should alleive their concerns as you are an actual business.

> That is why I use Pig Poo compost there is no tracking of the fertilizer at the pig farm....

I saved this from craigslist last month for any PA/NJ peeps willing to drive down (not sure if its season round and forget where exactly it was, maybe New Hope):
"Free compost/horse manure. Organic - excellent for your garden, fantastic fertilizer.
Offered in 50lbs sealed bags.
Pick up as many as you like.
Please call: 908.342.4669"
Im going to try to find a more local horse farm, (or use that as a backup as Im not sure if 50lbs of fertilizer is worth the 45m drive?, or even if horse poo is a good fertilizer for figs).

Bass, first, I am very very sorry for your ordeal, that is not funny by any means whatsoever. That can be a very tidious, hard, and stressful situation, which may not stop after this first visit, I wish you luck.

Persianninja,  Thanks for the information of the manure! Wonderful. Don't use much fertilizer on figs, but the tomatoes and peppers and all other garden stuff love manure. Ciao

Dang, that sux. Hopefully they will leave you alone....or at least sign up to your mailing list.

Free "Bags O' Poo" sounds like a great deal, as long as you're close enough and it isn't full of weed seeds. I've recently gotten a couple of nice loads of free mulch delivered by a generous local landscaping company; maybe I'll try to find some free manure as well.

That happened to my brother once. He was selling something military on ebay. I think it was a flight manual of an F-18 or something. The FBI came-a-knocking. Now Jon, HE lives in the boonies!

What was funny is that the agents, after checking the booklet and seeing it was not a problem to sell, didn't have enough gas to get back to town (12 miles). :-)

Bro was a good guy and gave them a couple gallons to get them on their way. Their boss called him a few days later and thanked him for helping his agents out of a jam...

It was the perlite bags I left in my car not fertilizer, now I think about it. They said that they got a tip that I have bags of fertilizer in my car and reported my license plate.
At least I'm not spending the night at the police station. I can only imagine my kids asking where's daddy, and their mom will tell them in jail for growing figs.
I gave these feds a lesson on growing fruit trees. They pointed to a banana tree and asked me if that was a fig tree. I actually made them feel bad. I did get their business card. Oh well, they can't take a chance.
My wife wanted to call the newpaper. Lol

What bothers me Bass, is it sounds like you were unfairly profiled by some paranoid, prejudiced citizen.

Not to worry though.  You have a few Barney Fife's everywhere, but most FBI Agents are professionals.  They have to check leads out, they want to keep everyone safe, but they also know and respect the law, so when it's obvious it's a dead end/frivolous lead and nothing to be concerned about its over.

This is still America my friend.  You have no need to worry.

And if your Constitutional rights are not respected, I will send you my business card!

Grow your figs, relax, and enjoy life.

Best wishes.

John

I guess I am fortunate to live close to some great salmon rivers where I catch the salmon for food and use their guts to make compost for following year use. Also, my friends from the Indian bands don't mind I drop by to get some of the guts. Most of these fish waste come to good use by mink breeders.

I bet that was an experience, I have experienced it myself too. They called me two weeks ago at my office, at first he pronounced my last name correctly (which I was  very surprise), then introduced himself and said he was from Federal Bureau of Investigation. He didn't said it right away why he was calling me, so I was shocked, asked him why he was calling me and he said it was about the stolen mail report that I had filled earlier this month. I was relieved when he said that and told him its OK, just forget about it. But he insisted that he wanted to start an investigation and asked many questions. He also told me FBI will get involve if someone's mail get tampered with or opened up with a sharp object like a knife or scissor basically it is a federal offense. One thing that I learned was maybe think twice before filling a stolen mail report again. 

Hi Paully.

My brother used to catch a lot of Salmon when he lived in Alaska, but Georgia isn't exactly Salmon country.  Some nice trout up in the north Georgia mountains though.

I have to buy dried fish fertilizer, but it is excellent.  I buy it is bulk every few years.  Not cheap, but well worth the money.

Stinks of profiling.  Find this unbelievable & unacceptable. I would at least notify the ACLU of the incident.

Bass ,
Hope it wasn't too traumatic and that you and family get over any underlying trauma soon.
Must be hard to think you came under any suspicion.
Best wishes to you and your family.
Kerry

Oh no Bass! I'm so sorry that this happened to you!  I echo other's posts...unfair to have singled you out and hope that it ends with that and no further visits!  Glad you didn't have to go to the police station etc! 

Eun

You are serious? Wow! I just bought 22 tons of mushroom compost for my greenhouses . So far so good :) Waiting for ATF to show up now.

I found out I had allergies the middle of last year.  My doctor prescribed "Mucinex D" in the red box for my allergies along with two other things.  I had about $800 left on my FLEX medical spending card at the end of the year, so instead of lose it when the year ended, I ran around to several local drugstores stocking up on OTC items he prescribed and the Mucinex D, since each store would only let me buy 4 boxes of the Mucinex.

About 2 weeks later, I got a visit from our local PD asking questions, wanting to sniff around my home for signs of a meth lab, and a neighbor said someone had been going through my garbage the week before.  Fortunately, I was able to show them a copy of the script from the doctor and explain what was up, and show them the medicine cabinet with about 2 years worth of Mucinex D, along with the other stuff my doc prescribed. 

I guess the reason I'm saying this is ... I tried not to take it personally. 
My heritage is french/polish/etc. and my father is ex-military, so I'm about 'regular joe' looking as it gets with a patriotic background. 

The reality is, everyone gets profiled for something.  Law enforcement (at all levels) has a duty to "protect and serve", and they have certain common, well known red flags that could indicate someone was is engaging in something illegal.  Many of our local domestic bombers (Tim McVeigh, etc.) have used fertilizer-based bombs to do serious destruction causing the death of a number of people.  Likewise, people running methamphetimine labs at home stockpile over-the-counter drugs with psuedoephedrine in them to manufacture drugs. 

Bass fit one profile for domestic terror...I fit a profile for domestic drug manufacture.  It happens.  I don't find it hard to accept, I'm (generally) somewhat happy to see that (at least) someone is paying attention.  For the few times they may get it wrong, there are a handful of times they are bound to get it right. 

It's really a lose-lose situation, I suppose.  You either lose by having to put up with harassment, or you lose when someone you know is affected by a bomb or their house burning down or .... whatever it may be.

I feel bad that this happened and that I made light of the situation above.  After reading some of the responses afterwards, I feel like I should have been more sensitive about the situation or been more outraged, less light-hearted.  Sorry about that. 

Well said, Sattelitehead. I tried to joke about it as well, but in hindsight my comments weren't funny or helpful. The unfortunate truth is that innocent people can't help but attract attention from law enforcement when they're engaged in certain activities, and I don't see how it could really be otherwise. There are people out there who cause grave harm to society, and stopping them is not a simple process. I wish Bass or anybody else who gets an unnecessary visit didn't have to go through it, but at the same time I'm glad to know the FBI is checking up on what, from their perspective, looks like a possible red flag.