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Two Philadelphia men were charged this weekend with concocting an elaborate scam to sell costume jewelry as the real thing at a local shopping center, investigators said.
The men — Kevin A. Johnson, 44, and Ryan P. Brown, 37 — were at Lancaster County Prison Sunday night. Each is charged with trademark counterfeiting and criminal conspiracy, both felonies. Bail was set at $75,000 apiece.
Police allege the men made price tags displaying a notable jewelery vendor's brand name and attached them to phony necklaces.
The men were caught Friday trying to sell the items in Golden Triangle Shopping Center on Lititz Pike, police said.
A patron approached by the men outside Blockbuster Video became upset and called 911.
The men allegedly fled in a black pickup truck when they saw a police cruiser pull into the parking lot. Police pulled over the truck and searched the vehicle.
They reportedly found 18 cheap necklaces with homemade price tags affixed, and several more tags that weren't attached.
The tags on the 18 pieces of jewelry advertised a combined price of $10,684, and the loose tags advertised a combined price of $6,690, police said.
The men tried to disguise "junk jewelry" — worth "next to nothing" — as premium products, Manheim Township police spokesman Sgt. Tom Rudzinski said. They allegedly used the copyrighted named of a national retailer."This is one of those cases of buyer beware — it might not be what you think," Rudzinski said. "If it seems too good to be true, it probably isn't."
Investigators believe the weekend incident wasn't the duo's first crack at the scam.
"It appeared they had been making a regular practice out of this," Rudzinski said. "They were going around trying to get people to buy this stuff."
Police aren't sure if anyone was duped at the Golden Triangle Shopping Center before the suspects were arrested.
E-mail: bhambright@lnpnews.com
