POLICE SEIZE MORE CLOTHES BELIEVED FAKE

Steven's Discount Sportswear and Clothing was closed for business Wednesday after police confiscated more than $21,000 in suspected counterfeit merchandise from the store.

Cape Girardeau police on Monday executed a search warrant at the store at 6 N. Sprigg and seized more than 1,000 items of clothing, sunglasses and jewelry that contained brand-name logos but were not made by the brand-name companies, said Sgt. Carl Kinnison of the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Kinnison said no charges have been filed pending an investigation.

The store's owner, Asif Majeed, referred questions about the seizure to his lawyer, Jim Hahn, who did not offer a comment.

The store at the corner of Sprigg and Independence was dark inside Wednesday. Through the windows could be seen clothing hangers littering the floor, empty racks and dismantled window displays.

Kinnison said the only link between Steven's and Saturday's raid of three Sikeston flea markets that turned up counterfeit clothing was that the same investigator identified the counterfeit items.

Kinnison said the investigation began when the Missouri Highway Patrol stopped a vehicle with a large quantity of clothing that Cape Girardeau police linked to an early April burglary that had been reported at Steven's Discount Sportswear. When it turned out that clothing was counterfeit, Cape Girardeau police called in the investigator who was working on the Sikeston cases, Kinnison said.

Kinnison said the investigator visited the store and confirmed there were counterfeit items there.

Those items carried such brand names as Nike, Boss, FUBU, Tommy Hilfiger, Polo, Calvin Klein, Nautica and Oakley, Kinnison said. He said there is a state statute against selling items that are a counterfeit of any manufactured items.

"You can't put an emblem that says Nike on a plain sweatshirt and sell it as a Nike sweatshirt," Kinnison said.

He said knowledgeable investigators can spot counterfeits through lot numbers, tags and where they are made.