Washington City Paper: Contents for Apr. 14

Bootleg Bazaar
Fake Chanel! Copycat Cartier! Pirated Power Rangers! In the District, private detectives fight an onslaught of counterfeit goods.

Cover Story

It's dawn, and private detective Terry Merrifield is sifting through a trash dumpster behind a seedy warehouse in an equally seedy industrial section of a D.C. suburb. “Garbology 101,” he calls it with a laugh.

The object of Merrifield's scrutiny this morning is a clothing distributor. Chances are this warehouse is supplying apparel to retail outlets all over D.C., Maryland, and Northern Virginia. Chances are equally good that nearly every item is a fake, a cheap knockoff of an expensive brand name like Chanel or Tommy Hilfiger. Checking out the garbage is an established if smelly technique for tracing where the goods are coming from and possibly where they'll end up.

It could be a label from a packing box carelessly tossed into the dumpster, or maybe a swatch of cloth, that will enable Merrifield to tie items from the warehouse to street vendors in downtown D.C. or to suppliers in Baltimore, Philadelphia, or New York. Just as in drug investigations, the trick is to follow a trail back to the source.

The garbage survey completed, Merrifield retreats to his vehicle, parked across the street from the warehouse. It's equipped with a cellular phone, a camera with telephoto lens, and a camcorder. Its windows are tinted dark and, for good measure, covered by curtains.... Continued

Issue of Apr. 14 - 20, 1995

News and Features

Bootleg Bazaar
Fake Chanel! Copycat Cartier! Pirated Power Rangers! In the District, private detectives fight an onslaught of counterfeit goods.
Cover Story By Tony Capasso
So You Want to Be a Warthog
Auditioning to Be a Big-League Mascot Is No Game
The City By Claudia J. Rosenbaum
Fight the Power
Three Law Students Take On George Washington University
The City By Nathalie op de Beeck
Same As It Ever Was
Marion Barry Might Have Seen the Mountaintop, but He's Still Walking Through the Valley
The City By Clara Jeffery
The 17-Year Itch
A Helpless Populace Braces for Another Cicada Invasion
The City By Deborah Papier
Got Stoned and I Missed It
The Mail By Keith Halderman
Uprooted Plant
The Mail By Virginia Mead
Magic Bullet Theory
The Mail By David Husar
Hard Time
The Mail By Cathleen Norman
Les Miserables
The Mail By Bill Dollinger
The Final Chapter
The Mail By Alan Bisbort
Home Sweet Home
The Mail By Betsy Johnson
Whoa—Heavy
The Mail By Alison Green
Out There
The Mail By Fu-Shing Wu
Not for Delicate Stomachs
The Mail By William Johnson