isney, i any o – touseint eir
casesagainstcounterfeiters.
It’sa 21st-centuryversionofa skill
thebrothersfirstlearntwhileworking
togetherundercoveraschildren.Inthe
1980sand’90stheirfather,Robert
Holmes,workedasa privatedetective
andbecamea legendinthecounterfeit
business.GrowingupinNewJersey,
familyoutingswereweekendtripsto
thebeachfront,expeditionsthatwere
partshopping,partwork.
“Kidsmakeverygoodundercoverdis-
tractions,”Robsays.“Myfatherandstep-mother would take us to boardwalks up
and down the Jersey Shore, and instead
of having the grown-up make the pur-
chase of the counterfeit Cabbage Patch
doll or T-shirt, they’d have one of us do
i t .”
The boys were paid in ice cream and
cake. Strolling the boardwalks, they
honed the art of profiling: scanning
counterfeits and vendors, writing down
licenceplatenumbers, noting a suspect’s
d eye colour, checking for
asses, tattoos or scars.
Their father was a larger-
an-life figure to the two
ys. A “tough guy” who rare-
revealed his feelings, Rob-
t had lost his wife to suicide
en the boys and their sis-
, Jennifer, were still young,
t the former state trooper
ays presented a staunch,
ff front.
obert’s firm was employed
big brands, and he led intel-
nce forays into New York’s
inatown, checking the
res for counterfeit goods.
ach week they’d work
oughstacks
ourtorders,
ustingopendoorsalong
CanalStreetinManhattan
andseizingfakegoods,
whichwerelaterusedas
evidence incounterfeit
cases.
Robert’sworkearnedhim
thewrathoftheVietnam-
esegangswhocontrolled
thesaleofcounterfeitRolexesonthecity
streets,andthefamilylivedina stateof
watchfulness.
“Themafiahadcontractsonmydad’s
life,”Robexplains.“Welivedina houseinthe woods in New Jersey, pulled back
from the rest of the block. My father had
so many stories, like hitmen waiting in
front of the house. We always had to keep
the doors locked.”
“It was a dangerous time,” Jason sec-
onds. “Once we found a wanted poster
in one of the stores we went into in Chi-
natown.” The boys’ father had “a price on
his head”.
Rob remembers the day his father gave
him The Talk. “He said, ‘Listen. There
might be a time when I’m going to tell
you to move, get out of the way, duck.
And you’d better do it, because it’s going
to be important’,” he recounts.
The teenager shrugged off this fa-
ther-son chat. Rob says he was a “wise-
ass” kid with a cocky swagger. His father
might have been a star in the world of
counterfeit goods, but at home he was
Dad – and Rob was never any good at lis-
tening to his paternal lectures.
As soon as he could, he rebelled, leaving
home to pursue his own path. In his fam-
ily, rebelling meant passing up the family
business and going to Bible school. In-
spired by his church youth group, Rob
wantedtobecome a youth pastor, so he
went off to a religious college
in Philadelphia.
He found the structure
stifling and quit. Next, he
headed to Los Angeles to
become a stand-up comedi-
an, but cracked when lack
of funds forced him into a
boring job at a video store.
After just a day’s work he
called his father, who found
hima jobworking for a friend in the busi-
ness.
“ThereI wasagain,walking around
buyingjunk,ona differentcoast.” He’d‘We always
had to keep
the doors
locked. It was
a dangerous
time
GALLO IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES, FACEBOOK/ROBHOLMES, SUPPLIED (Turnover)
LEFT: Rob Holmes
learnt the skill of
tracking down con-
men from his dad
who was a private
detective. ABOVE:
A family photo
from 1981 shows
Robert Holmes Snr,
young Rob, his sis-
ter, Jennifer, and
younger brother,you.co.za 29 AUGUST 2019 | (^81)
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