ATF Agents Show Up To Man's Home Demanding To See His Legally Purchased Guns Without A Warrant In Delaware

The homeowner was alerted there were trespassers on his property by motion detectors outside his front door. A live video feed from his doorbell camera showed three armed men wearing tactical vests, t-shirts and jeans. Two appeared to be ATF agents. The third was a Delaware State Police trooper. None wore body cameras.

The homeowner, who did not want his name used in this story, is a small businessman – a law-abiding citizen who even ATF acknowledged had done nothing wrong. He went to his front door hesitantly. He left his doorbell camera running to record the encounter.

The homeowner confronted the three men before they reached the door. “Can I help you?” he asked, stepping onto the porch.

The older ATF agent told him they were assigned to a task force investigating straw purchases. A straw purchase – a federal felony – occurs when someone buys a firearm on behalf of another person, who is unable to legally purchase a firearm themselves.

The agent said they were verifying that people who bought multiple firearms still had the guns in their possession. The homeowner had bought seven firearms since January 2022.

He asked the men for identification, which the agents and trooper produced. They admitted they did not have a search warrant. The doorbell camera recorded what happened next.

Agent 1 “All I’m doing is verifying that you have it, you got two different purchases. If you have them, I’m out of here. That’s how quick it is. Yeah. Do you have them with you by any chance?”

Homeowner “They’re in my safe.”

Agent 1 “If you can unload them and bring them out. We can go out to your foyer here, check them out, write the serial numbers and we’re out of here.”

Homeowner “That’s it?”

Agent 1 “Yep.”

Agent 2 “That’s it. It will take five seconds.”

Trooper “The reason we’re out here is obviously gun violence is at an uptick. We want to make sure – we’ve been having a lot of issues with straw purchases. One of the things, indicators we get is someone making a large gun purchase, and then a lot of times we’ve been there and, ‘Oh, those guns got taken.’”

Agent 1 “The idea is that when you purchase more than two guns at a time it generates a multiple sales report and it comes to us and we have to check them out. That’s all that is. You did nothing wrong – absolutely zero. I noticed you were stopped in Philly though with one of your guns?”

Trooper “We’ll wait if you feel more comfortable.”

Homeowner “I’m okay. I just – I didn’t expect…”

Agent 1 “Oh no. It just came up. We came here, look, I’m telling you. There’s an email from the federal side saying can you make sure this guy’s got his guns. If you recently purchased a whole bunch of guns, if we can look at them and just scratch them off…”

Homeowner “I have them all.”

Agent 2 “We can look at them and write which ones you just bought, so we can save a trip from coming back. We’ll confirm that you have them.”

The homeowner agreed to get the firearms, closed the front door while the agents remained on the front porch, unaware they were being recorded.

Trooper “He doesn’t believe we’re cops.”

Agent 1 “I don’t blame him.”

The homeowner retrieved one rifle. The agent checked the serial number off of his list. The homeowner asked if he still needed to retrieve the rest of the firearms. The agents said it wasn’t necessary to see any more. They apologized for the inconvenience, wished the homeowner a good night and left.