Fedco Banned From Selling Knife-Pen Device

SANTA ANA — An Orange County Superior Court judge issued a temporary restraining order Wednesday prohibiting 10 Southern California Fedco stores from selling writing pens that contain a small, hidden blade.

Following a 15-minute hearing, Judge Richard Frazee ordered Fedco, the chain’s Shaver Shops and Remington Products Co., which operates the shops as a concession, to stop selling the pens.

In a complaint filed Monday, the Orange County district attorney’s office charged the devices, called Classic Pen Knives, are concealed weapons, specifically banned by state law.

The knife portion of the device is a fixed, single-edged, pointed blade, 2 1/2 inches long. It is exposed by removing the cap.

On Monday, within hours of a civil complaint filed by the district attorney’s Consumer Protection Unit, Fedco officials ordered the pen knives removed from store shelves.

“We applaud their taking immediate action,” said Robert C. Gannon Jr., the unit’s supervising deputy district attorney.

The judge suggested, but did not order, that Fedco stores in Costa Mesa and Buena Park surrender the products to local police or ship them out of state. Frazee scheduled a hearing on a preliminary restraining order for March 29.

Gannon hailed the judge’s action, saying “the court’s order addresses the primary public safety issue, which is keeping these illegal weapons out of the hands of the public, and stopping further distribution of concealed weapons. It also protects the public from possibly being arrested for a felony offense for having these items in their possession.”