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Law enforcement cracking down on Super Bowl counterfeits
Las Vegas — On the hunt for Super Bowl fakes, Homeland Security Investigations agents swept through Las Vegas over the past few days, seizing 4,600 football forgeries and counterfeits in hours, worth nearly $1 million.
“I think annually, the number of items out there, estimated to be in the trillions, and that’s trillion with a with a ‘T,'” said Katrina Berger, executive associate director for Homeland Security Investigations.
“Criminal organizations sell counterfeit merchandise, they manufacture and use the gains for many nefarious purposes,” Berger said.
Much of it is sold online, leaving buyers at risk of identity theft.
“I see some items that right in front of us, that are most likely going to be counterfeit NFL merchandise,” said Brandon Crane, assistant special agent in charge for HSI.
Crane spotted several fakes moments into a walk down Fremont Street near the Las Vegas Strip with a CBS News crew.
“As we get closer to the Super Bowl, you’re going to see more and more of it, you’re going to see mom-and-pop shops popping up, you’re going to see people selling these items out of the trunks of their cars,” Crane said. “It’s so prolific.”
Among the seized items this year, a fake Lombardi Trophy for $2,500, hundreds of jerseys, and even knock off Super Bowl championship rings. Last year, Operation Team Player led to 434 arrests.
“Just remember, true fans keep it real,” Berger said. “That’s what I want fans to know.”
HSI has also established a website that provides resources for football fans on how to spot counterfeit merchandise, as well as how to get help if you think you have purchased counterfeit items.
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1-month-old twins who died with mother believed to be the youngest-known Hurricane Helene victims
Month-old twin boys are believed to be the youngest known victims of Hurricane Helene. The boys died alongside their mother last week when a large tree fell through the roof of their home in Thomson, Georgia.
Obie Williams, grandfather of the twins, said he could hear babies crying and branches battering the windows when he spoke with his daughter, Kobe Williams, 27, on the phone last week as the storm tore through Georgia.
The single mother had been sitting in bed holding sons Khyzier and Khazmir and chatting on the phone with various family members while the storm raged outside.
Kobe’s mother, Mary Jones, was staying with her daughter, helping her take care of the babies. She was on the other side of the trailer home when she heard a loud crash as a tree fell through the roof of her daughter’s bedroom.
“Kobe, Kobe, answer me, please,” Jones cried out in desperation, but she received no response.
Kobe and the twins were found dead.
“I’d seen pictures when they were born and pictures every day since, but I hadn’t made it out there yet to meet them,” Obie Williams told The Associated Press days after the storm ravaged eastern Georgia. “Now I’ll never get to meet my grandsons. It’s devastating.”
The babies, born Aug. 20, are the youngest known victims of a storm that had claimed more than 200 lives across Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and the Carolinas. Among the other young victims are a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy from about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south in Washington County, Georgia.
“She was so excited to be a mother of those beautiful twin boys,” said Chiquita Jones-Hampton, Kobe’ Jones’ niece. “She was doing such a good job and was so proud to be their mom.”
Jones-Hampton, who considered Kobe a sister, said the family is in shock and heartbroken.
In Obie Williams’ home city of Augusta, 30 miles east of his daughter’s home in Thomson, power lines stretched along the sidewalks, tree branches blocked the roads and utility poles lay cracked and broken. The debris left him trapped in his neighborhood near the South Carolina border for a little over a day after the storm barreled through.
He said one of his sons dodged fallen trees and downed power lines to check on Kobe, and he could barely bear to tell his father what he found.
Many of his 14 other children are still without power in their homes across Georgia. Some have sought refuge in Atlanta, and others have traveled to Augusta to see their father and mourn together, he said.
He described his daughter as a lovable, social and strong woman. She always had a smile and loved to make people laugh, he said.
And she loved to dance, Jones-Hampton said.
“That was my baby,” Williams said. “And everybody loved her.”
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Telecom providers operate emergency communications after Hurricane Helene
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Auction offers “Game of Thrones” fans a chance to bid on props, costumes
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