St. Petersburg, Florida –  St. Petersburg Police spent most of Tuesday morning at a St. Pete store clearing out more than $100,000 worth of what they say are counterfeit shoes, apparel and purses.

The seizure nearly emptied Shoe Fashion at 3711 5th Avenue North.

Photo Gallery: Police seize counterfeit goods

Detectives with the SPPD Intelligence Unit tell 10 News the investigation started after they received an anonymous tip that the store was selling the fake goods.

The ripped off labels include Nike, Lacoste, Coogi, Polo, Ed Hardy and Coach which were sold at a fraction of the actual retail value.

Nike shoes like Air Jordans that would normally retail for about $125 were being sold for $20, or 3 pairs for $50.  Nike Air Force Ones and Air Max are among the other styles being sold, detectives said.

“Generally, the old rule of thumb, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is,” said one undercover detective.

The owner of the store, Alam Shikdar, was not at the store when detectives served the search warrant Tuesday morning.

So far, he has not been arrested, but faces possible felony charges.

“All of this merchandise, at least at this establishment, has been sold without any collection of taxes, or state sales tax, so we all kind of suffer when the legitimate money is not coming in as it should be,” said the detective.

US Customs and Border Protection estimates it seized more than $188.1 million in counterfeited items last year.  The most commonly seized item is footwear, which accounted for 24% of all items seized last year.

It’s not just the labels that lose out when counterfeit goods make it to the market.

FBI, Interpol, World Customs Organization and the International Chamber of Commerce estimate 7-8% of all world trade is counterfeit which accounts for $512 billion in lost sales globally.  Here in the United States, the losses go as high as $250 billion each year, costing the US 750,000 jobs.

Not only is it illegal to sell counterfeit goods, detectives point out that it’s also illegal to knowingly purchase counterfeit products.  

“In the state of Florida, it’s a misdemeanor violation, but typically we go after the vendors because had it not been for the vendors, we wouldn’t have people purchasing inferior products,” said the undercover detective.

 

The counterfeit items recovered include:

One pair of Prada jeans

One Louis Vuitton shirt

470 pairs of Nike Air Force One sneakers

267 pairs of Nike Air Jordan sneakers

50 pairs of Nike Air Max sneakers

Two Gucci shirts

One Gucci jeans

9 Coach purses

8 Coogi jeans

18 Coogi shirts

16 Coogi shorts

23 Polo shirts

13 Polo shorts

6 Polo shirt and short sets

27 Lacoste shirt and short sets

10 Lacoste shirts

40 Ed Hardy shirts

17 Ed Hardy jeans

 

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