Where, oh where did that confiscated pair of fake Chanel shoes end up? Hopefully in the hands of somebody who really needed it!
All around the world trading standard officers regularly raid warehouses and find thousands of fake designer garments. Like it or not, manufacturing and selling fake designer goods is illegal. Upon finding these illegal warehouses, police confiscate the merchandise. But what to do with fifty fake Louis Vuitton jackets? Give them to the homeless! At least, that is the solution that several trading standard officers have settled on.
In East London, for example, thousands of fake designer jackets, tops and pants have been confiscated in the last 12 months. These items have now been given to the Whitechapel Mission (with their fake labels removed, of course). The Whitechapel Mission is a local organization that serves breakfast each day to approximately 150 homeless people. It also provides facilities such as showers, toilets and medical attention to people who stop by. Now Whitechapel has stylish clothes to offer its visitors as well!
A similar course of action was decided upon by the government in South Korea. Originally the 3,500 garments confiscated by South Korean customs were going to be destroyed. But after checking with the designers, the government changed its plans and instead distributed the garments to the South Korean homeless through charity organizations. The United States government also decided to do something useful with its confiscated designer goods after Hurricane Katrina. People affected by the disaster were allowed to choose items they wanted from a huge collection of counterfeit designer items confiscated by federal customs officials.
A word to the wise: Many people do not realize that they can be prosecuted for purchasing fake designer goods. It is not only the vendors who are committing an illegal act; selling and buying counterfeited items could get you in trouble with the law. Now is not a good time to test the law’s limits. We are currently in the middle of a global crackdown. Sites have sprung up across the Internet offering discounted designer shoes that are actually fakes. In order to combat this growing trend, trading officers have decided that purchasers of these shoes may need to be prosecuted along with the distributers. The same goes for non-Internet purchases. Buying fake designer goods on the Italian Riviera, for example, can land you with an on-the-spot fine as high as 10,000 Euros. Now that is an expensive pair of shoes!
