December 12, 2004
Designer knockoffs go underground in Chinatown
The big investigation in the Daily News is about ... drumroll ... where have all the knockoff purses gone? Once hawked openly from dozens of Canal St.'s ramshackle stalls, the fake Louis Vuitton and Prada purses, the Tag and Rolex watches have gone.
But a Daily News investigation found they haven't gone far, forced into a secretive criminal empire filled with locked back rooms, passwords, well-placed lookouts and gang members linked by walkie-talkies. Apparently you need not have tough tabloid hack skills to score:"I was asking and asking for Gucci and Prada, and nobody knew anything," said Shelley Blair, 31, a tourist from Oklahoma City. "Then this woman with a baby stepped forward and said, ‘I know where you can get some.' She led me a few blocks away, unlocked this door and took me inside. Somebody else locked the door behind me and said, ‘Now you are safe.' The room was full of bags." The take: a fake $278 Coach bag for $38, a pretend $775 Louis Vuitton purse for $40.
Earlier: The perils of bargain shopping on Canal Street
December 12, 2004 09:39 PM in Cheap Stuff, Downtown, Shopology
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