Two charged with selling counterfeit merchandise on the boardwalk

Last Updated on Monday, August 06, 2012 03:35 pm Written by Staff Reports Saturday, August 04, 2012 02:42 pm

OCEAN CITY — Police are alleging that a local boardwalk business has been selling counterfeit products.

The Ocean City Police Department executed a search warrant on Jersey Shore Psychic, located at 1320 Boardwalk at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 1.

Bobbie Mitchell, 50, and June Mitchell, 31, both of Somers Point were arrested and charged with possession of over 25 counterfeit products. Both were released on summonses.

The warrant was the result of several complaints from customers that they had purchased headphones that they allege were not the authentic product as advertised on the packaging. The investigation also involved other purchases of copyrighted T-shirts for sale that allegedly were not the authentic product.

The products included Beats by Dr. Dre headphones and Angry Bird T-shirts, according to Capt. Steve Ang of the Ocean City Police Department.

The studio-quality sound offered by the headphones has made them a popular item this year, Ang said.

“The manufacturers of the headphones and the T-shirts have a copyright,” he said. “Before we can do anything about a suspected counterfeit product, we have to obtain the permission and cooperation of the owner of the copyright, they have to cooperate with us, and they did.”

Representatives from the companies arrived in Ocean City this week to work with the OCPD, Ang said.

“They cooperated and therefore we were able to execute a search warrant,” he said.

Ang said the OCPD received a complaint two weeks ago and others this week.

“The parents called; they knew it was a fake,” he said.

As far as buying any type of licensed product, Ang said it’s always “buyer beware.”

“There are probably a lot of products up and down the East Coast that are fakes,” he said. “We do the best we can, but unless we get the cooperation of the owner of the copyright, there is nothing we can do. In this case, the owner of the copyrights were very cooperative. You really have to be careful what you are buying.”

“Pretty much every summer this happens,” Ang said. “We always end up seizing fake products. This year it was one of the most popular products sold.”

The police seized over 100 allegedly counterfeit products during the investigation.