Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Worried that police are intercepting my packages, worried about knock on door. Or just COVID-19 shipping delays?

Worried that police are intercepting my packages, worried about knock on door. Or just COVID-19 shipping delays?

Cou - 24-4-2020 at 11:07

on April 1 ordered 50 grams of sodium metal from overseas on Ebay. The tracking history has not updated since April 5, when it left the russian customs house. Ebay recently took down the listing, along with a couple other sodium metal listings.

on april 18 i ordered 6 grams of iodine crystals from ebay, element sample, for grignard reactions. note that ebay allows all sales of iodine below 250 grams. Delivery was estimated for april 22. On april 22 the tracking history showed it was in my metroplex, out for delivery, but then it didn't arrive and said "arriving late" in tracking, then a couple days later the entire tracking history after "Departed post office" was replaced with "In Transit To Next Facility" with no updates in 2 days. this is first class mail.

is this normal shipping delay for COVID-19 pandemic? or do i need to start mentally preparing for the fact that pigs might come knock on my door and ruin my life on Earth, meaning I would have to commit suicide and reincarnate as an alien to start over? I'm already dreading hearing the dreaded 3 hard knocks.

[Edited on 24-4-2020 by Cou]

Texium - 24-4-2020 at 11:16

It’s most likely just covid related shipping delays.

However, in the unlikely event that the police DO come to pay you a visit, please, PLEASE be polite and respectful towards them. Ultimately the officers would just be following protocol and doing their job, and aren’t “out to get you.” If you’re rude, or freak out on them, it won’t help your case at all and it would give them a very bad impression of amateur chemists...

Σldritch - 24-4-2020 at 11:28

I am having the same issue with a package. I would not worry too much, i think Texium is right.

mayko - 24-4-2020 at 12:25

My rent check never got delivered and I had to go on an elaborate side quest (involving multiple bicycle rides through the bank drive-through) to get it canceled and reissued. I've also got a package still in transit from mid-march. I think the post office is just getting squeezed from all directions and getting overwhelmed.

B(a)P - 24-4-2020 at 13:35

I am waiting on a package from Russia and experiencing similar delays, to AUS not USA. I think it is just Covid.

j_sum1 - 24-4-2020 at 15:23

Here on oz things seem to be slow. 2 out of 16 packages sent to students have taken >2weeks to arrive.

I think slow delivery is widespread. I would not get worried.

SWIM - 24-4-2020 at 16:30

Mail is totally screwed up in the US.

I'm about to go to my Ebay account and refund two orders which were shipped on time but weeks later are still in the mail.

Most of my orders got there on time, but 5% or so don't even come close.

Note: Ebay used glassware sales are also WAY off right now.
It would probably be a good time to make an offer on that best offers accepted item you've been wishing you could afford.

They'll probably be feeling pretty flexible right about now.

arkoma - 24-4-2020 at 21:43

A) Not against the law to buy or possess Iodine or Sodium metal.

B) The quality of your posts has improved dramatically over the last year; your keeping a notebook I assume so therefore there is a record of your "intent".

C) Even in normal times I get weird tracking on some packages. I Live in a tiny town in Arkansas with the same name as one of the cities in DFW metroplex. Had stuff get to Shreveport from DFW area, and then get sent BACK to DFW, then back to Shreveport then to me.

D) If you have a meth lab now would be the time to move it

Shipping problems

MadHatter - 25-4-2020 at 04:34

I've encountered shipping mistakes before COVID-19
came onto the scene. A clock-radio I ordered ended
up in Virginia according to the tracking. I live in Maine !

morganbw - 25-4-2020 at 13:59

Quote: Originally posted by arkoma

A) Not against the law to buy or possess Iodine or Sodium metal.
D) If you have a meth lab now would be the time to move it

Hey guy, I am just a country boy as well.
Are you sure I may order Iodine, I think I have read the restrictions different than you.

Trust me I do know how to get Iodine from what is available, just wondering about the legal part of ordering Iodine crystals.

As far as Sodium and a few other items, yea still can get.

Herr Haber - 25-4-2020 at 20:25

I've had orders opened a couple of times by customs. They just marked it and let it through.

Every time that happened I had some inucous white powder such as lithium carbonate, carbomer, and other more or less authorised for shipping items such as Al powder or nitric acid.
Every time they seemed more interested by the white powders

I am currently waiting on nitric acid (yeah, lots of silverware to dissolve), benzocaine, sodium and potassium.
I saw on the tracking it went through customs, stopped and is now on the way again.

You shouldnt worry too much, first your order is innocuous. Second, there's the Covid crisis that is slowing everything down.
Just think for the future how an order of chemicals can look through x-rays. It's probably quite normal they attract customs attention

arkoma - 26-4-2020 at 01:48

Quote: Originally posted by morganbw

I ain't ordering I₂ crystals, because it is a huge red flag. And it does seem that "importing" them requires notice. KI ain't that expensive.

G-Coupled - 26-4-2020 at 02:57

Most likely shipping delays due to The Event, no doubt - but I'd make sure to keep a clean house at least until the package(s) arrive. :cool:

DavidJR - 26-4-2020 at 05:48

Quote: Originally posted by Cou

... or do i need to start mentally preparing for the fact that pigs might come knock on my door and ruin my life ...

Maybe hold off on calling them "pigs".

Cou - 26-4-2020 at 12:29

The tracking history for the sodium has updated (slow customs)

Iodine is a domestic package. But has been at "in transit to next facility" for 5 days now.

karlos³ - 26-4-2020 at 15:23

Quote: Originally posted by Herr Haber

I've had orders opened a couple of times by customs. They just marked it and let it through.

Every time that happened I had some inucous white powder such as lithium carbonate, carbomer, and other more or less authorised for shipping items such as Al powder or nitric acid.
Every time they seemed more interested by the white powders

Yeah screw the german customs, white powders are everything for them.
Keep import embargos from russia in mind though, I had hydroxylamine HCl hold up until I provided certain paperwork to them, only for that single reason.

On the other hand, a parcel with thousand teabags coming straight from peru just required them to demand import taxes.
They did not barely understand why any type of tea needs to imported from south america, or why its value amounted enough to require me paying taxes on it.
They were like, "its called mate de what..?!?"

Bureaucrats and nothing else, they can and will let anything slip through if properly labelled

Cou - 27-4-2020 at 18:18

ugh this is so stressful. if police come, the best outcome is all of your glassware seized. this issue is making my depression come back,

sometimes i wonder if i should've just been a regular kid who watches tv, plays video games, and eats fast food. i tried getting into saxophone as a hobby, but unlike chemistry i got tired of it fast. can't hang out with friends because i'm autistic with severe psychological issues, but that's just fate if i turn to risky hobbies because of social issues.

[Edited on 28-4-2020 by Cou]

Texium - 27-4-2020 at 22:11

You’re backsliding, Cou. You were really doing so well there for a while.

Cou - 28-4-2020 at 09:25

should I make a free consultation with a lawyer?

it's f*cked up that i might spend hundreds of dollars on legal advice because i was stupid enough to order 10 grams of iodine

Texium - 28-4-2020 at 10:13

Still backsliding.

karlos³ - 28-4-2020 at 20:06

Cou, come on.
Thats 10g of iodine.
Do you really think anything would happen for that quantity, even if they would knew you bought some?
How can they even get you for a serious offense if you did not even received your order?
And lastly, if you are really worried they might think you have like, a meth lab or what, then just do the math, how many meth could be made from it?
And then try to convince yourself based on logic that this is a quantity that really causes any reaction, and that in texas, where the mexican stuff goes through... I doubt any cop would even raise a brow.

You just lost your nerves.
Do you know why drug cooks are successful and just buy such things in your country?
They don't loose their nerves, even when they do order like a pound of iodine, yet they can still sleep at night.
And when the cops finally show up, if they ever do(if they do, never because of stuff that was ordered, usually because the cook was screaming at squirrels at 3am or something), then those guys are completely suprised because they rightfully did not expect this.
Keep calm, you fucked up nothing, the only one who fucked something up is the parcel delivery services.
No donut-eater would even lift his ass for someone who ordered 10g iodine, especially at a time when dozens of kilos of masked phenylacetone derivatives enter the country all the time(and they don't lift their asses for that either).

You have nothing to worry.
I give it at most 2 weeks and its there.
But don't loose your nerves again if it should take 3

clearly_not_atara - 28-4-2020 at 22:25

Quote: Originally posted by Cou

do i need to start mentally preparing for the fact that pigs might come knock on my door and ruin my life on Earth, meaning I would have to commit suicide and reincarnate as an alien to start over?

No. Unless an investigation of you has already been initiated due to other serious evidence (like someone said they bought drugs from you), the first outcome of a customs seizure is usually what we call a "love letter". A love letter is a notice that a package being delivered to your address was seized and if it keeps happening the police will investigate. A typical love letter looks a bit like this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/darknet/comments/dbutst/final_updat...

If you have not received a love letter and you are not involved in a large criminal conspiracy it is extraordinarily unlikely that legal action will be taken against you even if your shipment was seized.

Cou - 28-4-2020 at 23:20

Quote: Originally posted by clearly_not_atara

Quote: Originally posted by Cou

do i need to start mentally preparing for the fact that pigs might come knock on my door and ruin my life on Earth, meaning I would have to commit suicide and reincarnate as an alien to start over?

Tracking was just updated. it had been stuck on "in transit to next facility" since april 22, and finally updated on april 29.

lesson learned for anyone else who sees this post: expect packages to be severely delayed during COVID-19, with vague tracking that makes it appear the package was lost.

at least this motivated me to finally clean all of my glassware thoroughly and organize the lab in preparation for a police visit.

[Edited on 29-4-2020 by Cou]

Shipper

MadHatter - 29-4-2020 at 15:04

I'm sure this is nothing more than a shipping
delay. I live in Maine and today I received a
replacement screen for a laptop from Burnaby,
British Columbia, Canada. It was ordered 4
days ago. Some of my relatives have a problem
with winging a laptop like a frisbee when they're
angry. Laptops shouldn't be treated this way.

Cou, did you ever try to extract iodine from iodide ?
This is what I used:

NaI + HCl --> HI + NaCl
2HI + H₂O₂ --> I₂ + 2H₂O

I bought the NaI from Chemsavers.

Cou - 29-4-2020 at 17:25

Amazon has sodium iodide

I would do that extraction If I ever do reactions with large amounts of iodine. But I only need tiny Crystals for grignard reactions.

Tsjerk - 29-4-2020 at 18:51

Or wash your magnesium with a little diluted HCl, rinse with water and methanol and dry over CaCl2. Dry all other reagents over molecular sieves. This way most Grignards will start without any iodine or other kickstarters.

My magnesium is so active after such treatment it bubbles with methanol.

arkoma - 29-4-2020 at 20:09

Quote:

at least this motivated me to finally clean all of my glassware thoroughly and organize the lab in preparation for a police visit.

Any good reason works LMFAO.

Refinery - 9-5-2020 at 14:04

Fancy how I imagine people having "bug out box" that is put on aside and where they keep their more occult chemicals in case someone shows up for a check and all they've got to see are some biofuel experiments, homebrewing and etching and electroplating stuff. Another thing is, when one is open and even a bit eager to show things around, they tend to be looked upon.

Nowadays many commonplace lab reagents can easily fall into restricted categories, now when new EU restrictions are on place.

The more hazardous way could be to label the products to something else, for ex. storing nitric acid in car detergent canister. In case the contents are actually sampled, a more serious investigation needs to be on the grounds. I've witnessed police investigation scene of felony drug warrants and basically if the container stated it contains something, they'll count on that. In question was "a suspicious white powder" can that turned out to be some sort of legal nootropic. It was never sampled.

CouchHatter - 9-5-2020 at 17:33

I'm all for reusing containers, but IIRC, purposely mislabeled chemicals is a big red flag for any visiting law enforcement. In some cases (meth lab busts) they sample everything. You can take your chances I guess. Maybe I'm just naive but carefully labeled containers sounds like a better option even barring cookery.

I used to have a special place for what seemed like taboo chemicals, but did away with that shit. I sleep better without feeling like I have a box of secrets. Now all my chemicals are stored together and I'm prepared to defend my reasons for having them. However, I'm privileged to live in a relatively chemistry friendly place.

Cou, I also started to play the saxophone this year. Don't give up on it so easily!
Karlos, I'm 25. I wish I had piano hands! Learning this instrument, my first, makes it seem like it would be easier than before to learn any instrument.

[Edited on 10-5-2020 by CouchHatter]

karlos³ - 9-5-2020 at 17:44

What, you started to playing a music instrument lately?
May I ask how old you are?
I am fed up of getting told I have piano fingers and then to explain I never ever thought about learning it.
I alwas thought "yeah well, its called arachnodyctaly, so what"?.

Now I'm in my thirties, and I wonder, if it might be beneficial to learn this still?
I would like it, I think.
But I can't afford a piano since I started to study again.

Not talking about the lady department of course

But would it be fun?
Would it be enjoyable?
I never ever played a musical instrument at all.
I don't know if I would like it at all?
It surely sounds like a challenge... and then again, Shulgin did so as well... it is tempting, but I never got into such a thing ever.

Frankenshtein - 21-9-2020 at 09:30

I dont understand why people are afraid of the police. In traffic I found some are very rude and some are very nice. Like anything else, it depends on the individual.

Because of the design of the law it's best not to have certain combinations of things regardless of whether youre doing anything wrong or not. I dont know why sodium would be an issue, but just dont have any of that sudafed or bronkaid laying around. The state keeps track of such purposes so just some iodine is ridiculous to worry about. I've used bronkaid for energy, diet as it's an appetite supressant, and for congestion. I've thrown away any of it I had still laying around when I see it.

I can assure you, you have nothing to worry about if you dont have any bad intentions. I would not go talk to a lawyer especially if it costs you money. You are just panicking and working yourself up, I do it all the time too for other things, it serves no purpose.

Bedlasky - 21-9-2020 at 14:46

CouchHatter: You are saxophone player? That's cool!

Many years ago I also wanted to play on saxophone. I played on recorder that time. My teacher told me, that clarinet is good preparation for playing on saxophone. So I started to play on clarinet and I played on it for many years. My teacher led also ensemble (3 clarinets, 1 bassclarinet and 2 flutes) and his bassclarinetist planned to leave. So I started to play on bassclarinet in ensemble and it was really fun. The bassclarinet is played in exactly the same way as the clarinet, so I didn't need to learned something new (bassclarinet have on the bottom in addition four keys - small E flat, small D, small C sharp and small C - which clarinets don't have. Some clarinets have key for small E flat elsewhere, some don't (typically french clarinets don't have small E flat)).

So bassclarinet went to the foreground for me, because I really enjoyed all concerts, competitions and also ordinary exercises. With years I become more lazy, so finally I didn't start to play saxophone. At the end of second grade on high school I also stop playing on clarinet (which I honestly slacked that time) and also stop playing on bassclarinet. I felt that ensemble wasn't that good when I started (all players I started with was somewhere else) and my school getting longer and longer schedule every year and I was lazy to spend evenings doing something else (maybe I was stupid, maybe I should've stayed for another few years in the ensemble, but it doesn't matter now). So now it is 4 years after my leaving.

Which kind of saxophon do you play on? Bass, bariton, alt or soprano?

macckone - 21-9-2020 at 15:40

packages are still being delayed.
Some of it is vendors having to wait on their own suppliers.
International shipping is completely fucked.
The slow boat from china/russia is SLOW.
The vast majority of what I order is inorganic, so not too concerned about the authorities.
Large bag of white powder is clearly labelled food grade calcium carbonate 99.9%. And it is food grade calcium carbonate.
I would be more concerned about a ticket for bootlegging if they showed up.
The only thing I am currently cooking is ferrites, and that uses some serious heat.