Today is the official release day of my book, and an FBI agent just knocked on my door.

Today, April 25th, is the official release date of my book FAKE: Forgery, Lies, & eBay. I've just emailed everyone I know (and people I barely know, and people I haven't talked to in years), and my website is getting a ton of traffic. I'm excited and cautiously optimistic about it all.

And about twenty minutes ago, in the middle of all this emailing, I received a knock on my door. I turned in my chair and, though the blinds, I could see a man in a suit on my doorstep.

I opened the door and encountered a young, clean-cut guy in a slightly baggy grey pin-striped suit. He wore a bulky college class ring with a huge blue stone. I immediately assumed he was selling something, and thought the product might, more than likely, be Jesus.

But no. He asked if I was Kenneth Walton, flipped out a badge, and introduced himself as a special agent from the FBI.

I'm not making this up.

I was shocked, more than anything else. Too shocked for anything like real terror to grip me. I knew I hadn't done anything in a long time that would warrant a visit from the feds.

But it was still bizarre to face him. It is, this week, exactly six years since I received a phone call from a New York Times reporter informing me that my eBay activities were under investigation by the FBI. Six years since the FBI last visited me at my home and left a business card. And now, on the release date of the book that tells the whole story, another agent knocks on my door and flashes a badge.

Was it the book? I could only assume that was why he was here. What else could it be. But why? FAKE doesn't disclose any government secrets. It doesn't defame the FBI.

Within seconds my questions were answered. The man was here to return a laptop computer the FBI had seized from me during the investigation. I need to come down and sign for its release, or give them permission to destroy it.

I could only smile when I heard this. In early 2001, when I met with the prosecutors to cooperate with their investigation into my eBay shill bidding, the FBI agent at the meeting asked me about my computer, and whether I had any email stored on it. I explained to him that I'd gotten a computer virus that had obliterated all my old email. Although this was true, the FBI agent was skeptical, and told me to go home after the meeting, turn off my computer, and get it to him within 24 hours. And so I did. He assured my attorneys I would have it back in three days, after my hard drive was mirrored.

And now, over five years later, long after the case has been closed, they are returning it. Apparently they've been trying to get in touch with me for months, and lost track of where I lived. They'd almost given up, but the agent at my door had gone the extra mile, checked some public records, and found me.

He couldn't have been more nice about the whole thing, and apologized for knocking on my door unexpectedly. We chatted for a couple of minutes and I told him about the book. He said they also have some paintings in their possession, but told me I will probably never get these back.

When I said the laptop probably wasn't worth much anymore, since it is so old and has, by contemporary standards, a miniscule hard drive, the agent suggested, with a complete lack of irony, that maybe I could sell it on eBay or donate it to charity. Since I've been banned from eBay for life (something he must not have known), I think the first option is out.

This is turning out to be an interesting day.