Don't Tread on This!

So a friend told me about this guy in Ball, Louisiana that was stopped and detained on the side of the road for having a Don't Tread on Me sticker on his car. Hmm...I thought, let me check that out. Sure enough it's true! Seeing as we still have our right to freedom of speech (for now), I decided to show my support for said freedom and order me a few of those stickers as well as a t-shirt to proudly wear in public.

I called the same online store that I read the man's relative used. I asked how business was and he told me business was up. I asked him if he had heard about what had happened to the guy in Ball, sure enough he had and he was seeing a spike in business related to it. I wasn't the first to tell him about it. I made my purchase and went about my life. Little did I know what was about to happen.

Cue to four days later, as I sat in a group of ladies knitting of all things. My cell phone rang and it was a stern sounding woman who identified herself and that she worked in the fraud department of my bank. Right at this point I'm thinking someone has used my card and spent hundreds of dollars or worse. She proceeds to tell me that a purchase on my check card was flagged. Oh crap, here it comes. Someone has used my card, right? The woman says she will call out purchases made the day before the "flagged" purchase, okay they are mine, so we move on. She tells me the flagged purchase was made at Patriot Depot for X amount of dollars. I confusingly said, "Yes, that's my purchase". The woman sounded surprised and asked, "So, you did indeed make this purchase"? I said again that I had and then asked why it was flagged. The only answer I got was that it was a suspicious purchase. WTF? Suspicious how? Who's watching my purchasing? Is Patriot Depot being watched?

Oh, it gets better! The next day I was at the grocery store check out line. I swipe my check card and I can't use it. It was declined! It's a debit card and I wasn't close to my balance by a long shot, so why is it declining it? The little slip that spits out doesn't say insufficient funds, no it says card not valid. Now I'm pissed and everyone knows. My gut tells me something stinks and I call my husband. He calls the bank's 800 number and they explain that my account was held aka frozen until they determined there hadn't been any fraudulent purchases on my card. Didn't I say that was my purchase? Didn't that alone take care of it? Were they really checking to see if I was associated with any militant groups?

Is this the beginning of the end of our rights? I don't need big brother checking out a 38.00 purchase online for stickers and a t-shirt like it was for suspicious chemicals. I think I can do a good job of letting my bank know when I see a questionable purchase on my statement. I'm pretty sure, if I was a part of a militant group, it would be a group of bright enough people that I would have been trained not to buy chemicals with my check card, I'm just saying.

Now my dad has my Mom buy stickers and a flag for the house. My neighbors are joining in and buying their "Don't Tread on Me" gear. I hope everyone reading this goes to Patriot Depot and buys stickers, mugs, shirts, flags and caps. You Obama lovers should open your eyes and consider how precious your rights are too. I know my eyes are wide open. What next a knock at the door for buying insecticide for the yard?