Homeland Security Agents Visit Toy Store

So far as she knows, Pufferbelly Toys owner Stephanie Cox hasn’t been passing any state secrets to sinister foreign governments, or violating obscure clauses in the Patriot Act.

So she was taken aback by a mysterious phone call from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to her small store in this quiet Columbia River town just north of Portland.

“I was shaking in my shoes,” Cox said of the September phone call.

The events and subsequent climate of paranoia that lead to the Patriot Act and the creation of the very powerful DHS would result in more than a little paranoia of my own if they called to make sure I’d be home when they visited. If you have any doubts about that statement check the next thing she said,

“My first thought was the government can shut your business down on a whim, in my opinion.

Is that true? No. Is it a perception in this day and age? Obviously

And what was it all about? A toy; and why is DHS concerned about a kids toy on the shelf of some little toy store in Oregon?

“One of the things that our agency’s responsible for doing is protecting the integrity of the economy and our nation’s financial systems and obviously trademark infringement does have significant economic implications,”

Now tell me folks… where do you think it will end?

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