Pornographic Video Leads Police to Annapolis
You can buy almost anything on the Internet auction site eBay, but there are certain things that, as one Annapolis man learned last week, you can't sell there: among them, pirated pornographic videos.</br></br>A month-long investigation by a task force of the Annapolis Police Department, the U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Postal Service inspectors culminated on March 9 with an early morning search of 48- year-old Hari Prasad's apartment in the 1000 block of Primrose Road.</br></br>Police said a California resident bought two pornographic videos from Prasad on the Internet site and, when they arrived, was dismayed to find not originals but copies dubbed on generic tapes.</br></br>The buyer tipped off authorities, and last month Detective Pete Medley of the Annapolis Police Department keyed in Prasad's e-mail address and ordered up a few of the titles.</br></br>Authorities say that when they closed in on Prasad's home, at 6:30 a.m., they found what they were looking for. Among the evidence collected were 78 copy-protected original videos, 360 illegal copies, 120 blank VHS tapes and ledgers documenting the eBay sales.