TRADEMARK ISSUE
‘Stash cans’ seized in raid at Perrysburg warehouse
Authorities say no arrests were made
3/12/2014
Glowacki
THE BLADE
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Law enforcement vehicles are parked outside Glow Industries Inc. in Perrysburg.
Law enforcement agencies raided a south Perrysburg adult-novelty warehouse Tuesday morning and seized “stash cans” with counterfeit trademarks on them, but preparations for drug seizures proved unnecessary, authorities said.
Glowacki
Jill Del Greco, a spokesman for Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office, said Glow Industries, 12962 Eckel Junction Rd., was targeted based on information from a similar investigation of “stash cans” — false-bottom containers bearing trademarked names whose hidden compartments can be used to hide drugs or valuables — in southern Ohio.
Csomos
Armed with a search warrant, agents and officers from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Perrysburg police, the Wood County sheriff and prosecutor’s offices, the Fairfield/Hocking Major Crimes Unit, the Ohio Pharmacy Board, and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration searched the business at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
Most of Glow’s employees were sent home, while a few stayed to help law enforcement with the search.
Jason Glowacki, Glow Industries’ co-owner and president, said he was shocked when he started getting calls from some of his plant’s 46 employees about the raid. He said he was particularly irked by reports that officers were looking for marijuana, which his attorney said had never been handled there.
“It is very frustrating,” Mr. Glowacki said. “And very disruptive.”
About 1,000 of the “stash cans” were seized, but no arrests were made and no drugs were found.
The DEA and other agencies were present “just in case” narcotics were found, Ms. Del Greco said.
Evidence will be turned over to local prosecutors’ offices, she said.
Wood County Prosecutor Paul Dobson declined to comment.
The attorney general’s office would not say if any individuals at the warehouse were targeted.
Mr. Glowacki said Glow Industries, which he and his father, Dave Glowacki, founded in 1978, had carried the “stash cans” since moving into its Perrysburg warehouse in 1996.
Glow Industries describes itself on its Web site as a wholesale manufacturer and product distributor of “glass sex toys, smoking accessories, and alternative lifestyle products” founded following “the success of its three-store chain of The Shed retail stores in Toledo.”
The Perrysburg location is a distributor for those stores.
The Shed, now known at several stores as the Head Shed, also has an Adrian location.
Laura Csomos, an attorney for Glow, said in a statement that the company has been in business for nearly 40 years and its activities have always been legitimate. Glow has always complied with all applicable laws and regulations and will continue to cooperate with the investigation, she wrote. She declined further comment.
In 1997, David Glowacki, who at the time owned a Shed location on East Wooster Street in Bowling Green, was convicted of selling drug paraphernalia from his business, which a block from Bowling Green State University. He was given a suspended 90-day jail sentence.
His conviction was overturned by the 6th District Court of Appeals in 1999. The higher court said there was insufficient evidence for a conviction.
Contact Matt Thompson at: mthompson@theblade.com, 419-356-8786, or on Twitter at @mthompson25.