From Trash to Gold

We were conducting an investigation for one of our clients on counterfeit laptop power supplies. The chargers were being brought in from China without markings and sold over the Internet after counterfeit trademarks and labels were affixed. We made several purchases online, and each time the power supplies were sent via courier, with a return address to a small town approximately 100 miles from our location.

 

We visited the address and found a house in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Surveillance on the house revealed it was indeed a residence, in which a family appeared to be living: a couple and three young children. We found no evidence of commercial activity.

 

Because we were unable to make a test purchase directly from the target, and we had detected no commercial activity, the prosecutor was reluctant to act. We tried numerous techniques, including requesting delivery of the product in the same town in an effort to follow the product from the residence to delivery. Still, we detected no movement. We also tried making a large purchase to see if boxes were being removed from the house and taken to the post office. Nothing. We were beginning to think we might have been targeting the wrong residence.

 

As a last-ditch effort, after obtaining approval from our client, we conducted a trash run on the garbage left in front of the residence one evening. Bingo! We found two power-supply labels with our client’s logo that had apparently been discarded due to an error in printing. We also found a small plastic bag identical to those containing the counterfeit products we had purchased as well as four photocopied manuals that had been cut crookedly. Last but not least, we found a courier label displaying the same account number as the one used to send us the counterfeits.

 

With the new information in hand, the prosecutor agreed to authorize the enforcement action. It took place the following morning when the children were out of the house and presumably at school. The authorities found and seized more than 5,000 power supplies in several dozen boxes stored primarily within the family’s garage. Authorities also seized thousands of labels, boxes, plastic bags and user manuals. All told, the seizure netted more than US$400,000 in counterfeit goods.

 

Without the use of the trash run, we would never have obtained the evidence to support the enforcement action, and the case might have been closed.

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