Police raid South Street stores for counterfeits

PHILADELPHIA - December 15, 2011 (WPVI) -- Philadelphia and federal lawmen raided South Street four counterfeit products, and for one of the targets, it wasn't the first time.

Federal agents returned Thursday night, as part of the daylong raid.

They took boxes and boxes worth of evidence from an apartment on the 600 block of South Street.

Earlier in the day, agents tell Action News Discover Handbags and Lucky Store were filled with counterfeit merchandise including handbags, scarves and sunglasses.

All the merchandise have designer names on them, but officials say those names are fake.

Agents raided Discover Handbags for the same reasons back in 2009.

Tonight, neighbors told Action News that the store reopened just a few days after that raid.

Other business owners say they're tired of people selling the fake goods in their area.

"I think it's really hurting the other stores that sell the high-end handbags in this area. The guys across the street that sell the real product, it hurts them drastically," Nat Leonard of the Society Hill Pawnshop said.

Federal agents say the counterfeit items are also a risk to the public, because they can be shoddily made and dangerous.

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philadelphia, pennsylvania, counterfeiting, raid, crime

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