Feds seize suspected counterfeit sports gear at Meridian Mall

·A team of federal agents made a “significant seizure” of suspected counterfeit sports merchandise and apparel in a raid on the Sportz R Us store in Meridian Mall, a U.S. Customs Enforcement spokesman confirmed Thursday. The agents, accompanied by a uniformed police officer from Meridian Township, executed a search warrant Monday morning, according to witnesses, police and Khaalid Walls, a Detroit-based spokesman for the federal agency that operates within the Department of Homeland Security. No arrests were made, but Walls said sports merchandise and apparel were “boxed and hauled off.” “We’ll review the items we have and confirm whether or not they’re authentic,” Walls said. He said documents from the investigation are under seal in federal court, preventing him from commenting on what led agents to believe the merchandise associated with teams from the NFL, NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball was manufactured without payment of the licensing fees the leagues collect. He also declined to quantify the amount of merchandise seized or to speculate on its retail value. “It’s an ongoing investigation,” Walls said. “We’re still in the early stages.” Sportz R Us was incorporated by Terry Harrison in 2007, one year before he incorporated Goin Deep Collectibles in Saginaw, according to state business registration records. The Okemos store was open on Tuesday and Wednesday, but at mid-day Thursday, it was closed and a metal drop-down security gate was in place. Phone calls went unanswered during the morning and early afternoon. An employee who identified himself as Joe Oliver was working alone in the store around 5 p.m. He said he opened for business around 3 p.m. and was not expecting Harrison to join him before closing. He said he came to work Monday afternoon to find much of the store’s merchandise was gone but no one told him it had been confiscated. “I’ve just been told maybe we’re moving,” he said. An employee who answered a call at the Saginaw store Thursday afternoon said Harrison was not there either. The square footage of the Okemos store could not be determined Thursday, but the remaining merchandise appeared to consist primarily of collectibles from toys to banners to sports cards and to be sparsely distributed across the available space. Claudia Bleil, marketing director for the mall, declined to comment on the raid.