The difference in Ms. Williams's possession of the shoes was that she did it using other people's credit card identities to acquire them. And that she did it from one store: the flagship Saks Fifth Avenue in NYC.
So, given the easy to relate story of credit card/identity theft, Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr. presided over a news conference from the lobby of the Hogan Place office where he stood behind a table of very high fashion woman's footwear and handbags, rather than stacks of drugs, AK-47s, and semi-automatic, high caliber handguns. The only similarity to this display and the metaphorical one is that while stiletto knives might have been used in the drug trade, stiletto heels were used in this one.
Ms. Williams and her cohorts are not the first time someone from Saks was hauled into the judicial system. A few years ago there was a case of jewelry department employee who apparently was making off with the goods on a grand scale, over time. She got convicted, but a sales associate at Saks told me the woman wound up taking a big fall for others. Supervisors, and executives had asked her to do things that basically she shouldn't have, but certainly didn't own up to once she was caught.
The story in yesterday's paper describes many of the designer name shoes and handbags that were involved. I almost felt sorry for the designer names I didn't read. Not a single mention of Manolo Blahniks. Wouldn't it have great to get some free advertising and product placement, even if it stood before the Manhattan District Attorney and was being held in an evidence locker? There is no bad publicity.
In all, Ms. Williams is alleged to have accomplished this with help from four Saks employees. The total scheme is alleged to have involved $400,000 in the acquisition of designer handbags and shoes. A 66-count indictment was returned that charges grand larceny, identity theft and scheme to defraud.
It might seem impossible to steal $400,000 in shoe and handbags from one store. But, have you been to Saks lately? The story notes, that quite truly, the Saks ladies shoe department does have it's own zip code. This is true. 10022-SHOE.
To show you how classy Saks remains, consider that the corporation is now owned by the Canadian Hudson Bay company, and you can't find a pair of snowshoes anywhere at Saks.
Saks accomplished this zip+4 designation several years ago when they devoted I think their entire fourth floor to ladies footwear. There is even a dedicated elevator to whisk you from the main floor just to the shoe floor. It is plainly marked that it goes only to the shoe floor, but you can get in by mistake, as I did once, thinking I might actually get in an open elevator and get to where I might be able to buy a shirt.
I realized too late that I was being deposited in ladies heaven, and had to make my way back to the main floor and switch elevators. That elevator is like the Grand Central-Times Square subway shuttle. Two stops only.
I don't know how Saks got the SHOE zip+four designation. It is clever. I didn't think you could write to a shoe, but then again, I guess you can write to the shoe department, and someone will get it.
Usually, you get those phone numbers that spell something, like 1-800-FLOWERS; 1-800-VERIZON; 1-800-MATTRES (Leave off the trailing S for savings.)
The most famous of these numbers to me was 1-800-MD-TUSCH. This was a famous health care fraud care years ago that was perpetuated by a physician that advertised heavily in the city's rapid transit system. At one point, and this is many years ago, this individual's monthly advertising bill to the MTA was said to be $40.000.
The physician's promise was that all forms of insurance were accepted, and that he specialized in discomforts of the rectum, typically hemorrhoids, lesions, whatever. Noble, but not when fraudulent billings ensued, and they did.
The physician was basically shut down in New York and there were no longer any more subway or bus ads.
I always quipped that he initially applied for a 1-800-ASS-HOLE mnemonic number, but was turned down.
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