After a federal employee received anonymous packages with insulting T-shirts and threatening letters, agents tracked the postage on one package back to promotional products distributor Proforma Pinnacle.
Celebration, FL-based Proforma, which fulfills orders for a music-products catalog, used its database to pinpoint the handful of catalog customers that ordered all three T-shirts with slogans that the federal agent described. “Two of the shirts were ours; the third one came from another company whose T-shirt is next to ours in the music catalog,” Proforma managing partner Michael Johnson said.
“I tracked the products to [Proforma], and that’s where I hit a stopping point,” Special Agent John Dean said. “Michael was able to provide information for me and put me in contact with others who provided excellent information as well. Had I not been able to get that, the case would probably still be in the working stages.”
The culprit is now serving jail time for threatening a federal employee and mail fraud.
“I always wanted to be a cop when I grew up,” said Johnson, though he admits that when the agent first called, “I thought it was one of my buddies playing a goof on me. I’ve heard of people using promotional products in all kinds of unique ways, but this was a first.”
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