Mantis Knives Stolen In Atlanta

While in Atlanta for The BLADE Show this weekend, Mantis Knives’ rental SUV was broken into and 25 pre-production MK-4 Vuja De balisong/karambits were stolen.  The following letter was sent out to Mantis Militia (knife club) members.  Thanks to ThinBlueFlorida reader M@ for forwarding it.

On Friday June 8th, at about 8:15pm, Mantis’ rental car was burglarized outside of a restaurant on West Paces Ferry Road in Atlanta, GA.

The passenger-side rear window of our SUV was busted out and EVERYTHING of value was taken. My backpack that contained a camera with priceless video footage and still shots of our booth, my iPad, and assorted folders with vast amounts of information were stolen… but perhaps what effects you guys most is that the entire lot of MK-4 “Vuja De” Knives were stolen.

To re-affirm: two Atlanta-area criminals have stolen 25 of the pre-production MK-4 “Vuja De” Bali-Song Karambits.The only one that remains with us is the one that I was wearing in my pocket at the time of the burglary.

I’m so sorry to be the bearer of this news. However horrible this is though, the show must go on.

We’re still traveling at the moment and trying to salvage what’s left of our sales trip,so I’m unable to give an exact ETA on when we’ll get back on track, and get these knives into the twenty new owners’ hands… but you know we will do it just as quickly as possible.

We continue to stay as positive as possible in spite of the recent events and we hope you will to.

Mantis needs your help, guys. I’d like to humbly ask each of you to keep an eye out for these knives being stupidly sold on Craigslist or Ebay…we figure that eventually, these thieves will attempt to turn these knives into cash, and I can’t think of a more vigilant force than the one I’m addressing right now.

Help me find these criminals and bring them to justice.  They’ve stolen from all of us.

The only witness described two black men in a forest green, two door, Honda accord with a lame-looking spoiler on it. The license plate had a “G” and a “B” in it, but that’s all that was legible to her at the distance she was standing.

The main advantage that we have in finding these items is that; though they’re not marked with our signature Mantis Ellipsem® logo, there’s nothing else remotely close to them in appearance, ANYWHERE on this entire planet. there’s only 25 pieces floating around out there… someone’s bound to come across them…

Every ounce of me would like to offer a dead or alive bounty on the heads of these criminals, but I think there are probably some legality issues with sending 23,000+ vigilantes after these guys… so I would just ask that you keep your eyes and ears wide open, and we’ll all hope for the safe return of our property.

We’ll get back on-track with minimal delay. Congratulations to the winners and as soon as I’m able I’ll notify you of their readiness to ship. We’d like to ask you for your patience during this trying time. This is an obstacle that will quickly be overcome and will soon fade into distant memory as we continue our rise to the top. That’s a promise.

We thank you deeply for your continued support of the Mantis Knife Company.

My best to you all,

Jared West- Founder, Mantis Knives Inc.

(Ed. note:  Letter was edited for content)

Thieves suck.

Randall