MommyGyver

Dec 31, 2018 at 12:49am

His Story
I went to the owner the next morning and asked
him calmly about the allegations the director
had made the night before. The way I worded it
was disarming to him. I told him that I didn't
believe what she had told me. That certainly it
couldn't be THAT bad.
As I expected, he began to talk- maybe a little
too much.

You see, this company, this MLM wasn't his only

endeavor. The clothing, the dog bowls and
beds, the accessories- he owned over a dozen
companies- all of which were little tiny flashes
in the pan. Little brainstorms of really cool
ideas that- if given any amount of true effort, I
have no doubt- would have become amazing
entities all of their own. Yet- none of those
companies actually grew. This man is the king
of startups, and the grim reaper of his own
creations. All except for ONE company. The big
one.

In the mess of the web he weaved for everyone

to see, the cash cow and the company that
sealed the deals for anyone who saw it was, in
fact- a manufacturing company. I was
scheduled to go see the company offices and
warehouses later that day. Would it be a stretch
of the imagination to think that maybe the
manufacturing company was making licensed
merchandise without a license? Then he was
selling it in his shop, on Ebay, Amazon, wherever
he could? No, it wouldn't be a stretch at all.

While he explained the parts of the story he

wanted me to know, I looked around the shop
with a more scrutinous eye. The licensed
merchandise was in the front. NONE of the
shoes and clothing was in the front of the shop.
The "front"... if you get my drift. Why have all of
this merchandise and NOT sell it in a storefront?
Even the non MLM items- the dog bowls- those
would sell in a mall environment. Why not put
those in front? It was like the front was meant
to be sparse and seedy on purpose.

At the cash wrap, blocking the front of the store

from the rest of the operations, there was the
equivalent of a baby monitor camera. A motion
sensing doorbell chime went off if someone
crossed from the mall into the front, and the
owner- who was usually in the far back, could
look from his computer or his phone to see who
was entering. He wouldn't bother to get up if a
customer was coming in. It made no sense.
"Let them steal that shit." He would say.

He told me that the police had raided him

because of an attempted break-in.

According to his version, there was a disgruntled

employee that had been fired. He claimed he
was owed money (this would become a common
theme) and tried to break into the storefront for
some unknown reason. The police were alerted
to the break-in, and the owner arrived to meet
the police.

Upon entering the back of the store, the officer

noticed that there were multiple tanks of
tropical fish in one of the rear rooms. The owner
is a fish hobbyist, and it was an interest we
share. I saw the fish and immediately identified
all of them. I've had tropical fish my whole life
and learned much from a book given to my by
my grandmother when I was 7 years old. the
book was published in the 60's, and I believe I
have every page memorized- THAT's how much I
read it as a child. So, he was taken by my love
for fish and my ability to rattle off the names of
species, color variations, where they were from,
and what water conditions were best for them. I
LOVE fish. But the officer that responded to the
break-in call didn't know a thing about them.
And here is where the trouble starts.

The owner was breeding the fish in many tanks

in a huge back room area of the former H+M
store. They were kept properly, well fed and
healthy. That much, I could see myself.
He was also Asian. He claimed to be Chinese, I
heard him speak Chinese, (Mandarin) as I can
say several phrases, and I recognize the dialect.
However, documents I would later discover
indicate he is actually a Taiwanese immigrant.
He represented to me that he and his brother
were born in the US. It's a trivial factoid, but it's
a fact I haven't yet sorted through to find the
truth. Just another inconsistency in his story,
perhaps.
There is no doubt he was of some Asian origin
for anyone that didn't recognize the nuances of
the language he spoke. And the officer also
made note in his report of the "Asian-ness" of
the owner.

I was handed a copy of the search warrant. I

would later verify with the officer in question
that this was the document in entirety, and
wasn't altered.

There is a large organization of illegal fish

smuggling in the area, according to the warrant-
namely the trafficking of a regulated and
invasive species known as "snake head".
Another species I'm familiar with, and one I
owned as a child before they became illegal.
Snake heads were a popular (albeit ugly) fish
that were such voracious eaters with almost
comically oversized mouths that grew rapidly.
And... that's how they became illegal.
Unsuspecting parents would let their kids get
these non native fish for their tanks and bowls-
and the things would outgrow anything they
were put in. They'd eat other smaller fish
(including their own babies) and horrified
parents would take them to the toilet and flush
them. More sensitive parents would release
them in nearby streams and lakes- flash forward
20 years, and they are seriously disrupting the
ecosystem of lakes and rivers all across the US.
I'm keenly aware of them because they are a
known problem here- in the midwest- off the
Mississippi and Fox rivers. The things are
incredibly hardy and can take the beating of
harsh winters and cold water. If you've lived
here for any length of time, you know all about
snakeheads.

According to the search warrant, (and brace

your sensitive selves- I'm going to write it for you
like it was written) the probable cause for
searching the owner's property was- the fact
that the man was Asian, and had multiple
species of tropical fish. Essentially, they
thought there MAY be snake head fish in the
shop, and because he was an Asian man- that
was enough to enact a legal toss and grab in his
store.

During the search, the police took truckloads of

Skipmerchandise
navigation that the owner represented was
properly licensed either by himself and his
manufacturing company, or HAD a license and
he bought it from someone that had it originally.

Now, a crude person would make the

connection between Chinese and knockoff
merchandise... and in a normal situation, I might
chastise you for making a stereotype- based
assumption. However- in this case, the
stereotype assumption would be a correct one.

The owner's defense was that he was racially

profiled (which I still agree with) and unlawfully
searched. He was able to produce licenses for
everything in the store.
Or so he said. I'd speak with the officer that
served the warrant and arrested the owner next.

2 Likes 2

Amy Warner 24h

Shop off the Hangar? In 2018 of March a store
was closed down briefly for selling unlicensed
merch. Is that who you are talking about?

Amy Warner 24h

i mean Hanger

Amy Warner 4h
Is it?

Write a comment ...

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