Piracy At The Flea Market

I'd originally planned a quiet relaxing day at The Compound, but a call came in from my School Friends, inviting me on a trip to the big Shelby County Flea Market.  I was half way expecting the call; for some bizarre reason, for the past 7 years since we graduated from good ol' Sullivan University, the School Friends have gotten together and made a trip out to the flea market sometime in March.  It's odd how that turns out; we don't go there any other time of the year except some weekend in March.  So here it was, the last weekend of March and I hadn't heard from them so I was expecting their call today.  I met up with them and we headed out I-64 to the sprawling Shelby County Flea Market in Simpsonville. 

To give you a little background on my School Friends, every time we do something or go somewhere, there is always drama.  But today, the only major drama that I witnessed was drama that didn't even involve us.  That's one for the record books. 

We were walking down the last wing of the flea market, heading toward the parking lot when a woman caught my eye.  She was in a motorized wheel chair and had a cast on her leg, but that's not what caught my eye.  The conversation she was having on her cell phone was what intrigued me: she was talking to someone in charge of the flea market, and was reporting someone selling bootleg puppies in the flea market.  Yes, pirating puppies. A woman was walking through the flea market carrying some little Boxer puppies trying to sell them to the flea market patrons, much to the dislike of the lady with the broken leg. 

There were 3 booths at the flea market selling puppies today, and I guess this woman thought she could just bring in some puppies and sell them, too.  This is the first time I've encountered puppy piracy.  You'll find other forms of piracy galore at the flea market -- knock-off designer purses, copied CDs and software, movies and perfumes, but I have to say selling bootleg puppies is a first.  The woman with the broken leg wasn't having any part of this.  We didn't stick around to see if security came and and aprehended the woman selling the bootleg puppies; I'm kinda glad we left before it all went down.