------------------------------------------------------------


Oct 28, 5:20 PM EDT

Homeland Security Agents Visit Toy Store

ST. HELENS, Ore. (AP) -- 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. "My first thought was the government can shut your business down on a whim, in my opinion. If I'm closed even for a day that would cause undue stress."

When the two agents arrived at the store, the lead agent asked Cox whether she carried a toy called the Magic Cube, which he said was an illegal copy of the Rubik's Cube, one of the most popular toys of all time.

 

 

 
He told her to remove the Magic Cube from her shelves, and he watched to make sure she complied.

After the agents left, Cox called the manufacturer of the Magic Cube, the Toysmith Group, which is based in Auburn, Wash. A representative told her that Rubik's Cube patent had expired, and the Magic Cube did not infringe on the rival toy's trademark.

Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said agents went to Pufferbelly based on a trademark infringement complaint filed in the agency's intellectual property rights center in Washington, D.C.

"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," she said.


 
Six weeks after her brush with Homeland Security, Cox told The Oregonian she is still bewildered by the experience.

"Aren't there any terrorists out there?" she said.

---

Information from: The Oregonian

I think these were really people from the Rubik's cube manufacturer.

They are taking the first steps ---


to being the secret police..............................

Quoted: They are taking the first steps --- to being the secret police..............................

+1

Quoted: They are taking the first steps --- to being the secret police..............................

i hate to admit it, but the framework has been built for them


maybee not under bush, but another will use them against the citisens of the USA, we do live in scary times

Quoted: They are taking the first steps --- to being the secret police..............................

Exactly.  

Quoted: I think these were really people from the Rubik's cube manufacturer.

+1

This whole story smells like poo poo.

I heard her interviewed on the radio. She called the manufacturer who said there was no problem, so she put them back on the shelves. HS did not go after the manufacturer because they are in Washington state and they have no jurisdiction there. WTF?

Quoted: I heard her interviewed on the radio. She called the manufacturer who said there was no problem, so she put them back on the shelves. HS did not go after the manufacturer because they are in Washington state and they have no jurisdiction there. WTF?

This sounds like the imagination of some liberal fruitcake gone wild.

Since when a Federal agency does not have jurisdiction in ALL 50 states and ALL territories of the US?