This story is about how buying NV Intensifiers second hand almost cost me $2500 and a visit from the G-Man.

I purchased my tubes from a poster here on Arfcom. I’ve been advised by EE staff member tenewel that I can reveal the seller was Lamneth. If anyone has dealt with him do not post his real world information.

He had an old ad for a Photonis XR5 in WP for about a grand. I checked with him and he said he had sold it, but he had 2 Photonis 4G Intens that he would sell me for $1200 ea. After thinking about it, I guessed they were likely Echos and I decided that wasn't a bad price for Echos.

So, I bought them. Being me, I checked with Photonis to see if they could tell me more about the tubes.

They quickly contacted me and told me they were super tubes, sold to the Army under an expiremental basis. So he said they were probably stolen.

Naturally, I got a little freaked. I contacted the seller and he said he traded for them at Knob Creek. Even offered to buy them back if I wanted to. Made me feel a lot better. I had literally just read his email when I got a call from Photonis that they weren’t what they said originally they were. The tubes were actually sold to an Aviation/NV Company and might have legitimately been junked. Naturally, I felt better about the entire thing.

Then a week later, I get a call from Photonis that the Aviation NV company thinks they might have been stolen from them. Said they have an employee with a very similar name as that given to me by the seller (some of this paragraph may not be exactly as I was told it, as when I first spoke to the NV company, I had just gotten home and fallen asleep after working all night the night before).

The Aviation NV company contacted me and confirmed this. Apparently they’re Aviation Grade 4G Intens that were intentionally beat to crap in test units (image is still very nice though). I gave them the PM and email chain and explained that I had zero reason during the original purchase to think that they might be stolen as I assumed they would be Echos or similar. I told them I’ll hold onto the tubes, but I’d like to see a police report before I would mail the tubes back to the company. However, I won’t be having anyone make Duals out of them. I’ll just hold onto them until contacted by police or FBI, at which point I’ll gladly turn them over. $2500 ain’t worth going to prison over.

PayPal ruled in my favor on the dispute and returned my funds. I informed the NV company that the $ was returned to me by PP and I’d send the tubes if they’d write up something basically saying that they knew I had acted in good faith.

The NV Company has offered to reward me by sending me a pair of used Anvis 9s that someone traded in for the latest and greatest (i accepted and they’re supposed to ship today or Monday). I’ve already returned the Photonis tubes and have a letter from the Aviation NV company saying that I’ve acted in good faith and my actions helped lead to the arrest of a US Gov contract employee who stole the tubes.

My guess is they’ve noticed multiple things missing over a long time period and this helped them catch the guy.

My plan is to take the $ that was returned to me and have the tubes put into RNVGs or Sentinels.

So, there it is kiddos. Be careful out there in the secondary market!!

Update: I have tracking number! NVG inbound! WHOOOOOTIEWHOOOTWHOOOOOT!

Karma bro, glad it worked out.
Sometimes looks like it’s going to go south and things have a away of working out.

Oh yeah, I thought for sure I was going to lose the $ AND have a nice chat with FBI/DOJ/whoever. I guess the guy admitted to it all.

Dang, I’m glad it worked out. Looks like you might come out on top.

Glad it worked out for you!

Dang. When you first found out that must’ve been gut wrenching.

So the seller you bought it from had no idea they were stolen, you got refunded by PayPal, you're getting a trade in set of used ANVIS 9s from the aviation company as a reward even though they know you got a PP refund? IMHO the right thing (integrity wise) to do would be to send the $2,400 back to the guy you bought the tubes from or send him the ANVIS 9s so he's not at a loss also, but that's just me.

It reads to me that the guy he bought from is the guy who stole the tubes

OP it's not very often that your good integrity will be rewarded with free ANVIS-9 goggles so savor that moment

It doesn't read that way to me.

If company had 1 pair stolen and just noticed, what ELSE have they  been missing. You MIGHT have alerted them to a HUGE problem and it was a cheap thankyou to get you a set of goggles.

As for the name thing, say you bought them from "jimmy smith"   and company has " James R Smith" who works in the NVG department, not concrete but they could compare addresses, and such also. OR "Jason q Rambo Statham Sr." works at company " and you bought from "Jason Rambo Statham J." similar but not perfect.

"I purchased my tubes from a poster here on Arfcom."

So.... who's missing?  

Don't think the seller got the tubes at knob creek. The seller is likely stole them from the aviation place. Good job OP

Don't think the seller got the tubes at knob creek. The seller is likely stole them from the aviation place. Good job OP

I thought it was pretty clear when I said seller’s name (as written on the shipping container) and employee’s name was similar.

Seller’s name was Bill Johnson (obviously fake). Arrested Employee’s name was William Johnson (again, not the real name). Seller no longer responds to emails to his email address or PMs to his screen name, so it was pretty clear that the seller was arrested because he was the thief.

Thank you, and I agree.

Awesome story. Glad it worked out in your favor and the NV company’s.

Pretty much exactly my understanding. I took pics of the mailing address on the packaging (it was a PO Box and included the guy’s name) and forwarded that to them as well.

I assume the dude confessed because they didn’t want the packaging it came to me in, just the tubes.

Good karma man. Good to see you did the right thing and that company also sounds excellent. Sounds like a company I’d like to buy things from lol.

Awesome that everything worked out.

Very much.
Thanks and I agree.

Yes. I believe I forwarded a portion of the story (before it had all developed) to you or to one of the other EE mods.

Well done. Clean livin' and conducting business like business. Always the best path.
Plus, you got to get acquainted with some pretty nice guys while you were at it.

Holy crapola. Glad it all worked out in the end.

ETA I am curious (as are the rest of us) as to who it was tho lol

Got it. In that case enjoy the free Sentinels.

Only saw him post a couple of times in this forum. I’d rather not say just in case it really wasn’t him (maybe someone using his screen name or whatever).

Please pm me the user name. I will not share but I would like to know who to be cautious of.

I haven’t seen him post in a while, and @tenewel (who posted above) is an EE mod and is alerted to the issue.

If EE mods want me to post the name I will.

Thank you for sharing this. I hope the MODS give approval to share the username, since the guy has been arrested.

What a complete and absolute mess. I am glad the employer took care of you, and good for you on calling Photonis to get the details. I had HORRIBLE luck with trying to do that in the past with L3, so I'm glad Photonis was good about it.

Doesn’t surprise me that you came out of this smelling like a rose.   Take care of your business, do no harm, and be completely honest and shit usually works out for you.

I scoured knob creek and NV items were sparse, several very old units like vietnam old. Granted mod armory was there with one set of ANVIS visible, another booth had a PVS-14 but based on the price of their other items I didn’t bother asking about them.

I have been forwarded a tracking number! NVG INBOUND! Friday arrival date.

free anvis goggles are always a bonus. i dont know if they make an anvis RNVG, but they made a MOD3 and a Sentinel, so you have options should you want to reuse that glass and not have to buy new glass.

Yup. I figure worse comes to worse (not great tubes) , I’ll sell everything and buy some L3/4G RNVGs.

ETA: I’m pretty sure they used to make ANVIS RNVGs, not sure if they still do

If you decide to sell off the housings and glass, please hit me up. Been looking for a used dual tube housing for a long time now.

I haven't seen ANVIS RNVG's for a while and the MOD3's aren't made in ANVIS anymore I don't think, I saw some people complaining about it on an astronomy forum. But I still see some housing kits floating around with AVS.

Will do. To be honest though, I’ll probably keep the ANVIS glass and use it on whatever housing I choose. Even the DTNVG housing is within my reach if I have glass and tubes! Probably won’t go that route though. Probably Sentinels or RNVG (if they’re available for ANVIS).

Are you going to leave feedback for this guy?  

Thanks Augee

Wow dude that's nuts! Looks like a happy ending though for sure.

it took 5 months for my AVS Sentinels to arrive from Chris Adams, with me hounding him almost daily those last 2 months. I would contact all of the various vendors before I ever go through that guy again. Or even contact AB Night Vision directly and see what options you have for AVS housings they make and have in stock.

That said, you could also just rock the anvis goggles (free is awesome), or even inquire with Ed Wilcox and ask him how much it runs to "uparmor" them.

I might do that.

I’m not even sure what all is coming with the unit, so I spent a good portion of yesterday evening familiarizing myself with Ground Adapters for ANVIS. only decision I made was “no ****ing way I’m buying that Wilcox unit”.

@TNVC_Augee

How is the price on this one in the EE and what would I need to make it work with a Team Traitor bump helmet?

Package arrived at my house. I’m still in the OR. Can’t wait to get home!

lilmac25… your a DR?

Cardiovascular Perfusionist.

They’re here! Standard Anvis9 set with removable power pod and no mount. So I’ll have to get that first.

Very nice though

Congrats, that's awesome. Great timing for the weekend.

Gated tubes?