Federal investigators requested banks to scour buyer transactions for . . . purchases at shops together with Dick’s Sporting Items and Bass Professional Outlets . . .
In my yard, I noticed ten or twelve SWAT group members wearing black, carrying Kevlar, and carrying assault rifles. Uh-oh, I assumed, I will need to have skipped a cost on my Chase bank card.
However it was much more critical than that. On the Justice Division’s route, my financial institution analyzed my bank card data and found I had bought two Carhartt shirts at Bass Professional Store. The Feds learn me my rights and arrested me on two counts of sedition.
I mortgaged my home to rent the very best felony lawyer in Baton Rouge—Robert Hufflepuff. “You’ve got been caught red-handed,” Hufflepuff advised me, “and the proof in opposition to you is overwhelming.
“It is solely a matter of time,” Hufflepuff added, “earlier than the FBI finds out about these mittens you obtain at Cabela’s. And the way will you clarify that replicate of Saint Teresa of Avila’s autobiography in your bookshelf? Non secular literature is one other extremism indicator.”
On my lawyer’s recommendation, I made a full confession and agreed to rat out my kinfolk and go into the witness safety program. I’ve a giant household, and the Feds arrested dozens of my nieces, nephews, brothers-in-law, and ex-brothers-in-law. All of them had purchased stuff from Bass Professional Store, Cabela’s, or Dick’s Sporting Items, and some had some non secular books of their houses. It was the most important bust of treason plotters since Waco.
I’ve realized lots from this traumatic episode. I now understand I ought to have by no means purchased these Carhartt shirts from Bass Professional Store. If I had purchased them from Academy Sports activities, the FBI wouldn’t have arrested me, and about two dozen of my kinfolk wouldn’t be dealing with onerous time in a federal jail.
Second, the FBI witness safety program will not be as glamorous as you may assume. I hoped to make a recent begin in an enthralling metropolis like San Francisco. Possibly I may get a gig as a hedge fund supervisor and pull down some huge bucks.
Sadly, my FBI handler solely provided me one choice: a brand new id as a Baptist preacher in Dry Prong, Louisiana. I made a decision to take my possibilities.




