Help identify these Force Fins - Old SD1s?

[TN Traveler]

Thank You Aquanomad,
Older experimental & secret items are sold by the government on a regular basis. I was just watching a show last night about missle silos chocked full of "secret" instrumentation. Are the defense contractors demanding their instruments back? Or even worse, are they accusing the new owners of being thieves? I do not have any documentation stating that the property was leased and quite frankly I do not believe that Bob has any valid claim to the property.
Again thank you for pointing out what should seem obvious.

Actually, if you had bought these at a government auction, you would be correct that Bob had no claim. But you bought them from an individual who obtained them in his capacity of a government employee and therefore he has no right to sell these items. They were basically stolen from the government by this individual and sold - legally he has no rights to sell them. Personally I would request that the individual return your money.

Bob actually has a claim to the items since they were part of a joint project to develop a product for the government and were to be returned after evaluation. Unless the government paid Bob for producing the prototype items, they were never government property - in this case, Bob footed the bill for producing the prototypes and did not get paid for anything except the final design that was purchased. This is not unusual when doing work for the government.

 

[surfon]

Bravo TN! You have stated your case well.

But...

1. I did not buy them "from an individual who obtained them in his capacity of a government employee".

2. As Aquanomad put it - "Why is this surfons problem?"

 

[DiveTheGalapagos]

Same line of prototypes?

Force Fins Custom Prototype Signed 35" One Size Fits All | eBay

 

[Bob Evans]

Good price, rare. Good luck. Wonder who is selling them ? Now I see they were given to my good friend and Force Fin Dealer Tom, At Action Aquatics, Tampa Flordia. I think Tom is with our Lord...This was my Free Diving model of the SD-1 project. They should be selling for more, someone does not know what they have.

 

[sibermike7]

1. I did not buy them "from an individual who obtained them in his capacity of a government employee".

2. As Aquanomad put it - "Why is this surfons problem?"

Hey Surfon
Not trying to be a jerk or anything, but buying/selling stolen goods is ILLEGAL. Being ignorant of the fact that goods are stolen may mitigate some severity in the sentencing phase at a trial, but it does not change the illegality of the offense.
So, yeah, it is YOUR problem too. If the goods were stolen, then your source is irrelevant.

Emotions have nothing to do with whether or not something is legal or illegal. I know we all would love to live in a perfect world, but we don't. It really doesn't matter how Bob responded. It really doesn't matter whether we like something or not, if something is illegal, then it is illegal.

Does that make sense?

 

[jbomb001]

I would like to see a police report stating that the fins were stolen.... or maybe someone has realized that this set of fins are extremely rare and worth big bucks and is simply trying to get them out of the hands of surfon.. if they were not reported stolen and there is no poof of ownership by Bob "regardless of if his company designed them" then in fact they are not subject to any legal preceeding. Is there at the very least a patient on this "prototype" I doubt it. Keep em and be merry surfon!

Sent from my galaxy S5 Active.

 

[sibermike7]

I would like to see a police report stating that the fins were stolen.... or maybe someone has realized that this set of fins are extremely rare and worth big bucks and is simply trying to get them out of the hands of surfon.. if they were not reported stolen and there is no poof of ownership by Bob "regardless of if his company designed them" then in fact they are not subject to any legal preceeding. Is there at the very least a patient on this "prototype" I doubt it. Keep em and be merry surfon!

Sent from my galaxy S5 Active.

Wow. Such venom and frothing at the mouth.
First of all, the word I think that you wanted was "patent" and the fact that you state that you "doubt" that there is a patent is proof of your ignorance.
I have seen with my own eyes some of Bob's amazing patents.
Secondly, to advise someone to willfully break the law is demonstration of your character or lack thereof in this case.

Granted, I stated in my earlier post "if" a number of times. While I trust Bob to be honest, since I know him, his personal integrity is not what would be on trial in a criminal case.
But then again, I am the type that believes returning a wallet to someone that lost it, unlike others in this thread!

 

[jbomb001]

Just an unbiased opinion. I do not know any party involved and could care no less how any of this turns out, however I do know that if surfon payed for this item then unless someone else can prove ownership then the item is his and his alone.
And as far as my character is concerned I served my country as did my father and his father and his 3 brothers. I also am a psd and volunteer fireman and sleep quite well at night. And I'd still keep the fins until someone proved that they were stolen. As far as venom and froth I'd reread bobs initial post.

Sent from my galaxy S5 Active.

 

[Bob Evans]

Sorry, to see these posts, but I was very upset to see these images of certain Force fin protypes being sold on ebay. They were part of a project with the U.S. Navy in San Diego. The contact person I was working with kind of disappeared and I never got the fins back..They are the property of Bob Evans Designs Inc.. Judging David's from his work, he might be dead. Anyway I was upset to see some one selling them and no answer how he got them..The Stolen part statement was wrong I am am sorry, but I still have no answers. My contact was David Libby. The worst part is these test models will fail and put some one at risk using them. Then who is the responsible party ? At the time we were stiching the foot pocket to the Urethane blade. The thread we were using cut into the fin material and with time would rip apart. Force fin test all products for about 5 years before hitting the market. In the end we solved this problem with lacing down the foot pocket to the fin blade. The outcome after 10 years of work was the SD-1. If you found my wallet, would you return it to me or sell it on ebay. ? When this person can tell us where he got these fins, your quess is as good as mine. Here's Avi with his SD-1, so you can see the final model. We plan to put back into production later next year. Great Fin. I will be more careful not to offend anyone in the Future. Force fin is growing and Susanne and I have just purchased a commerical building to handle the growth. Thank you to those who support us.