Damage caused by suspected vandalism at South Hadley High School
Westfield begins two year project to replace aging pipes
In a letter sent to the parents and caregivers of the high school students, Superintendent Mark McLaughlin stated that the auditorium area had 'sustained damage over the weekend due to suspected vandalism.' The school district is working with police during the investigation.
22News contacted South Hadley Police Chief Gundersen for additional information and will update this story as soon as more details are released.
WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.
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Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Autograph dealer identified as man found dead in Indiana raid of fake memorabilia
The Hamilton County Coroner's Office identified autograph dealer Brett Lemieux, 45, as the man found dead when police executed a search warrant into a scheme involving fake sports memorabilia in Westfield, Indiana. In a release Thursday, the coroner listed the cause and manner of death as pending, but in a statement Wednesday, Westfield police attributed "a self-inflicted gunshot wound" as the cause of death. A Facebook post attributed to Lemieux on the "Autographs 101" group sent shockwaves through the sports autograph industry Wednesday morning. In the post allegedly written by Lemieux, he detailed a huge counterfeiting business that sold more than four million items and surpassed $350 million in sales. The crux of the autograph forging operation was based in faking holograms of the largest companies in the hobby, including Panini, Fanatics, Tri-Star, James Spence Authentics, Mill Creek Sports, GT Sports Marketing and others. Lemieux's primary business was called Mister Mancave, which says on its website that it offers 'the largest framed jersey inventory on the web.' A Facebook page for Mister Mancave says the business is located in Columbus, Ohio, but no records of a physical store there exist. Mister Mancave has been incorporated twice in Indiana between 2018 and 2023. In the post attributed under his name, Lemieux said after Kobe Bryant died in January 2020, his company put out 80,000 fake items 'into the marketplace.' Sources told cllct Lemieux upset many companies that had official autograph deals with players because Lemieux's outlet would offer prices that were much lower and yet still featured holograms of authentication. An Aaron Judge ball, for example, would sell on Fanatics for $699. Lemieux's website at Mister Mancave would offer a Judge ball, with a Fanatics hologram, for $399. A Fanatics spokesperson said the company made big changes to its hologram two years ago after receiving information its former holograms had been copied. The new hologram has not been replicated since, the spokesperson said. Fanatics is currently working with two other partners to make additional changes that will make its stickers more counterfeit-proof. Sources say Fanatics has worked closely with law enforcement over the past few years, including the Lemieux case and the fake autograph ring in McKinney, Texas, that was unraveled earlier this year. Fanatics also employs former FBI employees to aid in its fraud prevention. Cllct contacted many of the companies whose holograms Lemieux said he faked. No others immediately returned messages seeking comment. Industry insiders told cllct they were surprised by Lemieux's post, which offered details of the alleged scheme. 'He's trying to burn the industry on the way out of the door,' one autograph dealer said. 'It's clear he feels spurned and is trying to impress people.' That source said he thought the numbers Lemieux boasted about seemed completely unrealistic. 'If he made and sold that much, the autograph industry would have been crushed,' the source said. RELATED STORIES: Dead body found during police raid on fake sports memorabilia in Indiana U.S. border agents seize $1.43 million worth of fake sports merchandise Charges dropped against two defendants in Jason Kelce autograph fraud Thousands of fake memorabilia items discovered in Texas probe Why so many Michael Jordan autographs are fake: A cllct investigation Another autograph entrepreneur, whose company does millions in annual sales called the $350 million number "impossible," adding he would be surprised if it were 10% of that. Longtime autograph authentication expert Steve Grad says no matter what the numbers, "this guy did years and years of damage." Grad said it's harder and harder to catch criminals because the autopen process is getting more and more nuanced. "This might have an effect on the industry in the short-term, but people have short memories, it will bounce back," he added. It wasn't like what Lemieux was doing was a secret, another industry insider said. 'He had tons of autographs from guys that didn't do a signing in years,' one autograph dealer said. Lemieux named names in his manifesto. He said Indiana autograph dealer Dominique Ball of Authentic Sports Collectibles "was the sole person who put out 100,000 Tom Brady items into the market" and that Nicklaus Litcher (sic) funneled the items Ball produced. A call placed to Ball was not returned. Nickolas Litscher, a chef in Wisconsin who has an autograph business on the side that most often manifests itself in offering prizes (razzes) on Facebook, told cllct he was shocked to see his name. "I said five sentences to Brett my whole life," Litscher said. "He makes me look like I was part of the whole thing. I never talked to him on the phone and don't even know what he looks like." Litscher said he is hiring a lawyer. Sources said Lemieux and his associates have taken on various names on many selling platforms, including Ultimate Sports, Athletes One, Signature Dog and All-American Authentics. Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectibles market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network. Kevin Jackson is the chief content officer for cllct.
New York Times
18-07-2025
- New York Times
Fanatics aided law enforcement in years-long investigation into sports memorabilia dealer found dead
Brett Lemieux came onto Fanatics' radar at least seven years ago as a potential sports memorabilia counterfeiter. The company told The Athletic it even altered its authenticity hologram sticker two years ago in part because of Lemieux's alleged activities. Fanatics conducted several 'test buys' of supposed autographed items from marketplace accounts set up by Lemieux, the company said, in order to build a counterfeiting case to present to Westfield, Ind., police and the FBI. Advertisement The situation turned deadly Wednesday when police found a man with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the midst of executing a search warrant involving the counterfeit scheme, according to a statement from the Westfield city government. The Hamilton County coroner's office confirmed to several Indianapolis media outlets on Thursday that it was the body of the 45-year-old Lemieux. Someone posting under Lemieux's name shared a lengthy message on an autograph collectors Facebook group called Autographs 101 earlier this week, claiming to have sold millions of counterfeit items and created millions of fake authentication holograms and stickers, along with other forgers, through a company named Mister Mancave. 'There will be photos of this bust I'm sure of it,' the message said. 'If it was (F)anatics they may try to bury it all but the Westfield police department came today at 9am with semi trucks. I hope no one tries to hide this. I want to expose it all and how big of an operation you all knew was going on but grasp how big it was. I wish I could write a book about this.' Mister Mancave, the website Lemieux referenced in his 1,000-word social media post, bears thousands of alleged authenticated autographed items up for sale. The eBay account (Break The Bank Autos) linked to the Mister Mancave website showed 21,000 items have been sold through the account with 24 items up for sale as of Thursday morning. By midday, eBay had removed the page from the website. The items posted were all autographed items ranging from Hall of Famers like Derek Jeter and Joe Montana to current stars like Lamar Jackson, Ja'Marr Chase and Alex Ovechkin. 'We have an entire team that includes former FBI agents that are out there going after bad actors like this one,' said Zohar Ravid, Fanatics president of specialty business and new ventures, who also disputed the numbers in the Facebook post. 'We're constantly monitoring what is happening in the ecosystem, especially in the marketplaces. And so we were able to follow this guy. We knew about him as long as seven or eight years ago at this point. … Our No. 1 concern is protecting the market, protecting the fan and ensuring that good actors like ourselves and other players aren't being hurt because of a few bad apples in the ecosystem.' Advertisement eBay issued a statement to The Athletic on Thursday saying, 'We are aware of an ongoing investigation regarding a sports memorabilia and autograph dealer based in Westfield, Indiana. eBay has zero tolerance for criminal activity on our platform and will cooperate fully with law enforcement as they investigate.' According to the Westfield city statement, police first executed a search warrant regarding the scheme on Tuesday on one property. The warrant extended to a second property on Wednesday, and officers found a deceased individual while conducting the search. The FBI is assisting with the investigation, according to the statement. In 2013, following a lawsuit brought by the Indiana attorney general, Lemieux was ordered to pay restitution to customers who bought sports memorabilia from his businesses that they never received. Fanatics executives said employees bought items off Mister Mancave marketplace pages throughout the year to build a case, rather than through the actual website. The homepage contains links to Amazon and eBay pages associated with Mister Mancave. The most recent test buys ramped up within the past three months, according to Fanatics. The company targeted the marketplaces for sales so the company could show the marketplaces the results of the test buys. The Facebook post attached to Lemieux claimed 'millions upon millions' of counterfeit autographs, authentication holograms, and certificates of authenticity not only with Fanatics but a variety of other major sports memorabilia companies. The post said an autopen machine was used to produce the fake signatures, and actual athlete autograph signings were used as cover for the fake merchandise, with the operation dating back 20 years. It highlighted Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady, Aaron Judge and Patrick Mahomes as some of the athletes whose autographs they faked the most over the years. Advertisement 'There's numbers being thrown around, the numbers he threw around,' Ravid said. 'If the numbers were real, we wouldn't have waited years to put that much pressure on. These aren't the numbers. It's grossly exaggerated to make a statement. The problem is real. The extent and the scale of it is less than what is being presented, but it is symbolic of what is happening in the industry.' It's the second time this year Fanatics officials say the company played a role in helping authorities in a fake autograph and memorabilia case. Fanatics officials said the company aided law enforcement leading to a January arrest of Wendell Gidden-Rogers and Lisa Skolnick from McKinney, Texas, who were charged with trademark counterfeiting. (Top images: Mister Mancave)
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Yahoo
'Brave' police hailed after shooting machete-armed man
A man shot dead by police while wielding a large machete was approaching a group of women involved in a shopping centre car park brawl that included his wife. The 29-year-old died at the Mount Druitt Westfield in Sydney's west on Saturday afternoon with the officers involved in the incident hailed for their actions. On Sunday, Assistant Police Commissioner Gavin Wood said six women aged in their mid 20s had crossed paths in the car park at 3.15pm and a brawl had erupted. The women were not known to each other and it was "sheer fluke that they have met", he said. The husband of one of the women retrieved a large machete from his car and was walking towards the women when police intervened. "Police asked the male to drop the machete," Mr Wood said. The man refused, and continued to walk towards the women. "The police officers got in the middle between the deceased person who was carrying a large machete and some of those females subject to the melee," he said. "At that stage, the police officer fired his service revolver". Mr Wood had checked CCTV footage and the officers' body-worn video and was "content with the actions of the police". The shooting would be subject to scrutiny but he said "their actions were commendable … they were brave". "We will put our arms around those police as we do, and they deserve that," he said. "They are good people, they are good police officers. They didn't come to work yesterday knowing they had to shoot somebody." Mr Wood said he had spoken to both officers and they were upset, and the enormity of what happened had started to set in. The shooting was declared a critical incident. The investigation will be overseen by the police law enforcement commission and professional standards and led by the homicide squad. The man, a father of two young children, did not have an extensive criminal history and no gang affiliations. Mr Wood said the machete he was carrying was at least 50 cm long. "If anyone had seen it, you'd be alarmed simply by the vision of it," he said. The man's wife was arrested but later released, subject to further police inquiries. The actions of the six woman involved in the incident will also form part of the police investigation.
