When ATF and the Secret Service raided Ed Kimpton’s home, expecting to find illegal weapons, they were shocked to find something truly disturbing. They tiptoed through his hard drive to get a good look at his online search history. Not only did the suspect gather an arsenal of guns and tactical gear which could arm a mercenary unit to invade a third-world country, he did it at an incredible discount.
The way he got the gear is ‘disturbing’
An anonymous tip that 25-year-old Edward Daniel Kimpton was using his PayPal account to make some “suspicious transactions,” led the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to team up with the Secret Service for a raid on his home and storage unit. It turns out he was running “a sophisticated fraud scheme.”
The agents learned the disturbing truth that “Kimpton purchased weapons and tactical material from various online sellers and retailers, often using fictitious names, and then disputed the charges for the items, claiming he never received them.” So basically he was ready to invade Charleston for practically free.
He was getting ready to use it too. His search history indicated he “conducted searches related to the firearms used in the 2018 school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, as well as information about the shooter.” The South Carolina native also did his homework “regarding mass shooters in Charleston and Florence, South Carolina.”

Grinning from ear to ear
On April 28th, before they found the disturbing things on his computer, the agents were grinning from ear to ear. “Naughty, naughty, you aren’t supposed to have these,” they told Kimpton while putting evidence tags on five “bump stocks.”
Ever since Stephen Paddock shot up Las Vegas to tell the world how mad he was – that nobody would recognize his multiple chemical sensitivity diagnosis – the modification has been declared illegal. The devices allow “a semiautomatic weapon to be fired continuously,” basically turning it into a machine gun. They are totally forbidden now.
While looking for the bump stocks they also started collecting a pile of “90 firearms, including semiautomatics, more than 23,000 rounds of ammunition, body armor, tactical helmets, tactical clothing, firearm scopes, gas masks, numerous loaded magazines,” and the bump stocks.
Kimpton has been charged with federal wire fraud, mail fraud and possession of a machine gun. According to the complaint, “officials suspect Kimpton of defrauding victims in Arizona, California, Florida, Indiana, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington state.” After his initial appearance, Kimpton remains in federal custody.