NYC Turns Fake Goods Into Genuine Relief for Haiti

(April 25) -- New York's Chinatown is synonymous with bargains, from dumplings to massages. But what tempts many visitors down to this part of lower Manhattan is its vast array of designer knockoffs -- illegal merchandise with labels claiming to be the likes of Gucci or Prada, but with price tags fit for Walmart or Target.

When seized by authorities, the infamous impostor apparel is typically destroyed. But in a few weeks, 125,000 tons of knockoff clothing -- the spoils of warehouse raids in 2008 and 2009 -- will end up on the backs, heads and feet of earthquake victims in Haiti, courtesy of the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office.

On Monday, 10 trucks filled with the clothing left Brooklyn bound for a Pittsburgh distribution center, where the Christian relief organization World Vision will cut off the fake labels and prepare to ship the clothes to Haiti.

"It was a very happy moment," Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes said of watching the trucks drive away. He estimated the street value of the clothing to be $100 million.

The story of the repurposed contraband began in 2007, when Brooklyn mothers went to Hynes' office complaining that their kids were getting beat up by gangs over the baseball hats they were wearing. Some reported that kids were having stores add gang symbols to the hats. Major League Baseball agreed to stop selling the hats to those stores, but then knockoffs began making their way onto the streets instead.

Using undercover detectives, the city homed in on which stores were hawking the fake goods. The owners of those stores named their suppliers in Manhattan, which in turn led authorities to a trio of Brooklyn warehouses where the illegal merchandise was being stored.

"No. 1 led to No. 2 led to No. 3," Michael Vecchione, chief of the rackets division in the Brooklyn DA's Office, told AOL News.

After the warehouses raids, the clothes were used as trial evidence. But when the trials were over, the law required the merchandise be destroyed.

"We thought, 'What a shame,' because we had literally 10 tractor-trailer loads of clothing," Vecchione said.

After some research, the authorities discovered they could donate the clothes if the companies whose labels had been used agreed to it, and if the fake labels were removed. They also discovered that World Vision had a system in place for just such a process.

When the trucks of New York knockoffs arrive in Pittsburgh, volunteers and staffers cut off price tags and interior labels, sort the clothes and then box them up for shipment. World Vision staff in Haiti and the Dominican Republic will ultimately distribute the clothes.

For many Haitians still recovering from the January earthquake, clothes are a luxury at a time when food is still hard to come by.

"It does become a case of, do they spend the money on food or clothing?" said Jeff Fields, World Vision corporate relations senior director. In most cases, food wins out.

Fields said his organization has dealt with knockoffs in the past, noting that companies usually only agree to have the fake goods sent outside the U.S., though after Hurricane Katrina many made an exception.

Now that he knows the knockoffs can be used to help others, Brooklyn DA Hynes says he's going to try to continue to give them away rather than destroy them. If he can, though, he'd like to keep some of them closer to home.

"We have a lot of poor kids in Brooklyn, too."