July 9, 2010
Updated Jul 17, 2007 at 5:41 PM EST
They look real, but investigators say they sell for at least half the price. Cheektowaga Police say they seized nearly 900 fake name brand handbags from the Isle of Style on William Street, along with alleged counterfeit sunglasses and jewelry. They say it's a retail value of $400,000. Investigators arrested 64-year-old Holly Schmitt and charged her with felony first degree trademark counterfeiting.
Officer Christina Newman says, "They fly to New York and walk up and down the street corners until someone invites them into one of the secret rooms on canal street. They will go in there. They will place their orders and the bags are shipped to them separately from the labels." These alleged designer knockoffs, from Coach, to Gucci, to Prada were selling for $160 in some cases.
Newman says, "Just about everybody I know has some friend or family serving overseas and when the profits filter down, they go directly to organized crime and a good deal head over to the middle east." A note from Schmitt on the store's front door says, " Due to being raided by Cheektowaga Police with a search warrant obtained by Officer Christina Newman, I am out of business. Officer Newman felt it necessary to get all my bad bad purses off the streets."
In response to the note, Newman says, "You don't take this job to make friends. I'm here to do the best job I can and to protect the safety of anybody I can. If along the way I happen to make some enemies, I can sleep at night. I can look in the mirror in the morning."
Officer Christina Newman says, "They fly to New York and walk up and down the street corners until someone invites them into one of the secret rooms on canal street. They will go in there. They will place their orders and the bags are shipped to them separately from the labels." These alleged designer knockoffs, from Coach, to Gucci, to Prada were selling for $160 in some cases.
Newman says, "Just about everybody I know has some friend or family serving overseas and when the profits filter down, they go directly to organized crime and a good deal head over to the middle east." A note from Schmitt on the store's front door says, " Due to being raided by Cheektowaga Police with a search warrant obtained by Officer Christina Newman, I am out of business. Officer Newman felt it necessary to get all my bad bad purses off the streets."
In response to the note, Newman says, "You don't take this job to make friends. I'm here to do the best job I can and to protect the safety of anybody I can. If along the way I happen to make some enemies, I can sleep at night. I can look in the mirror in the morning."
Twitter
Facebook