Homeland Security and Mao: Hoax or not?

Laura points to a post with more info about the Homeland Security agents visiting the UMass-Dartmouth student who ordered a copy of Mao's Little Red Book:

Doesn't sound like a hoax ...

Gary, though, cites problems with the whole affair:

... A variant of the story has popped up, with the locale changed to California. This version is definitely a hoax. That doesn't prove the original was a hoax, of course; legends can grow around true stories. But at this point the UMass Dartmouth story sounds very dubious.