The Four Color Media Monitor

If you're wondering whether there's specialty store managers who've engaged in illegal actions, this report from WKRC/Local 12 in Norwood, Ohio can certainly confirm there are sadly those who've crossed the line:

A local comic book store owner, James Bird, and his former employee, Travis Daniels, have been arrested and charged with multiple offenses, including theft, receiving stolen property and telecommunications fraud.

The pair has been accused of reselling stolen LEGO sets and over-the-counter medicines at the Paper Street Trading Company since 2021.

"These guys were ripping all of us off," said Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich. "Because we shop at these stores, these big box stores, and if prices had to go up to cover those losses, we're paying for that, and that's not right."

Court records revealed that Bird and Daniels allegedly accepted stolen LEGO sets from retailers such as Kroger and Walmart, altering barcodes on the packaging to prevent tracing back to the original stores. The stolen merchandise was valued at more than $150,000.

Obviously, their terrible deeds don't represent all store managers. But, this does make clear that regrettably, there are comics retailers who can break the law, effectively contradicting what moral lessons were once espoused in adventure comics. Let's just hope we don't one day wake up to find out a comics retailer did something far worse than what the twosome now charged with fraud and robbery did.

Labels: licensed products, sales