PIRATES GET BURNT IN VIDEO STING
Five men and two women were questioned this week by police in regards to a quantity of illegal copies of DVDs and computer games found at two eastern suburb markets and a video rental store in Rosedale. The flat of one of the men interviewed was also searched.
Croydon regional response unit officers and Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft investigators seized 400 pirated DVDs, computer games and karaoke discs in the basement of the Video Saloon store in Main Street, Rosedale. Over 1000 pirated DVDs were discovered in the flat of an acquaintance of one of the employees. The fraudulent copies were worth around $28,000 on the local market. Two computers and duplication equipment worth almost $8,000 were also removed from the flat.
The DVDs were sourced from overseas or burnt from original copies within the store.
Officers claim the operation was capable of producing almost 100,000 discs and games a year.
The manager and two employees of the store were interviewed after police alleged that the DVDs were sold to customers over the counter.
Three market stall owners were also being interviewed after large numbers of illegal DVDs and console games were discovered for sale at the Eastside and Heatherdale markets.
Detective Sergeant P C Rooks from Croydon CIU, who lead the raids, said anti-piracy investigations had been undertaken over the past twelve months. ‘This is just one in a series of raids the regional response unit and Federation Against Copyright Theft investigators have planned,’ said Detective Rooks. ‘Piracy continues to be a threat to legitimate businesses. Hopefully this will act as a disincentive for illegal activities in selling pirated goods in the future.’
The names of the two men and one woman from the Rosedale store questioned over the pirating have not yet been released. Detective Rooks would not confirm if formal charges had been laid in relation to the crimes.
‘Investigations are continuing,’ he said. ‘We’re trying to establish what the roles of the staff were in regards to the copying and selling of the DVDs, and their relationship to the man who held the illegal stock in his house of residence. While this was not a large scale operation, selling pirated DVDs over the counter of a video store was particularly brazen.’
Investigators went undercover to buy pirated DVDs from the store and the market stalls in the weeks leading up to the raids.
The illegal copying and selling of DVD movies is a multi-million dollar industry in Australia. Illegal copies are easily obtained at market stalls and on-line. This costs the Australian film industry an estimated $400 million a year. It is estimated that 10 per cent of all movies distributed and sold in Australia are illegal copies, double the figure of six years ago.
Wow. I mean, WOW. Crass AND Vince were sweating it up with Detective Rooks! Even better, there’d be no more Robert Keppler and his evil stalking ways. I felt like punching the air. It was as if I had been part of the raids and I had snapped the cuffs on Robert and Crass. The letter and midnight excursion was all worth it. Topps and I had done it.
‘Staceman, yeah!’ Topps said when I showed him the article. ‘Justice has a new name…and its name is Stacey Fallon!’
‘You’re an avenging angel!’ cried Skye.
‘Yeah, I guess. Just a pity it had to come to this. If they’d just let me be…’ After
the initial jolt of triumph when I had read the article, I felt a little bittersweet, as if I’d just won a 100 metre sprint at the Olympics but I’d had to sacrifice most of my life to get there, and I wondered if it was all worth it.
‘C’mon Stacey! They were into this big time. They made thousands of dollars and tried to get you and Caitlin to help them out. What would have happened if you had been caught along with them? Crass would have let you burn. He was a coward.’
What would have happened if I had been caught? I thought our story about being a concerned mother kept me pretty safe, but who knew if Crass would give Caitlin and my names to the police? Would I be in trouble? Would I go to court or be fined? Just the thought of having a police officer knocking on my door made me sweat.
For now, everything had worked out fine. A raid of the store well after I’d quit and arrests at the two markets. It was co-ordinated. A twelve month investigation? Crass wouldn’t – couldn’t – be suspicious. Perhaps my package wasn’t even needed? Perhaps they had tabs on the Video Saloon anyway? Is that why Detective Rooks wanted to have a talk to Vince?
Even though I thought I was safe, I still didn’t want to meet Crass, Vince or Robert in a dark alley in the near-future. I was guessing that I wouldn’t be on their Christmas card list this year.
The only real regret I had was the loss of my summer job. The end of the school year was only a week away and I didn’t have a job. Dad said the hardware store didn’t need casuals until stocktake. That meant money would be really scarce again, unless the Chicken Shack needed someone to scrape out their deep fat fryer.
‘I wonder if old Vince was involved after all?’ asked Topps. ‘Yeah, I’m not sure I’m looking forward to finding out, but who are the two employees?’ I wondered. ‘Crass is one, who’s the other?’
‘What? Didn’t you know?’ said Topps. ‘You’ll remember her. She was about three years older than us. That girl who dropped out of school in year eleven, what’s her face – the one who always wore pink socks – um, Toni someone. She’s working there. I saw her a few weeks ago.’
Toni. The girl who Crass wanted to so desperately meet in the city that night. The girl who was pushing for my job months ago. Now she had it. I was certain she would have been an enthusiastic player. Pity, because now she’d be getting grilled too. Wrong place, wrong time.
‘Topps, I said. ‘I reckon it’s over.’
‘Yeah, Staceman. We did it. The perfect revenge.’
Topps hugged me, and I let him hold me for longer than I usually felt comfortable with. I felt his hands on my back, soft and gentle. My blonde hair brushed against his cheek, and he looked at me expectantly. I saw a look in his eyes and knew nobody else cared for me like Topps did. I know that there aren’t many boys like him. For one moment I thought I was going to kiss him. What would have happened if I had? We would have stayed there, embracing and letting the last few months wash away, not caring what had happened, not worrying about the results of our actions, just being together. I think I would have liked that. But I didn’t kiss him. Not on the lips, anyway. Instead I pecked his cheek, then pulled away. He looked embarrassed. I smiled. Perhaps one day.
‘Yeah,’ I said to him as he stood there in silence, ‘perfect.’