Operating out of a Newark home cluttered with DVD burners, computer towers and piles of blank discs, like countless other high-tech thieves pirating computer game software, authorities say.
But, those authorities say, he was a thief with a difference. He would not only sell customers pirated DVDs for Microsoft's Xbox 360 game. For $60, he would modify an Xbox console so it would not reject counterfeit software, they said.
Investigators estimate the pirate had thousands of customers before the Essex County Prosecutor's Office raided his home and arrested him yesterday.
"He was one of our higher profile targets in the area," said Robert Hunter, manager of intellectual property enforcement for the Entertainment Software Association, whose investigators keyed in.
The pirate was arrested in the three-story home on Mount Prospect Avenue he shared with his mother and other family members. He was charged with violating New Jersey's anti-piracy act, a third-degree offense that can carry up to five years in prison.
Ford Livengood, a deputy chief assistant prosecutor, said there is no statute prohibiting the modification of the consoles, but the pirating itself falls under the act.
Hunter said pirating of entertainment software is a $3-billion-a-year industry worldwide. He said Xbox consoles retail for anywhere from $250 to $600 depending on the exact product, and games run from $30 to $60. The consoles are designed so they will not play counterfeit software.
On the Internet, the pirate allegedly was offering pirated games for $20, supplying the software through the postal service or by e-mail. He also offered his customers the option either to buy modified consoles or to bring their existing consoles to him for alteration, authorities said.
Alerted by Hunter's sleuths in early November, the prosecutor's economic crime and official corruption unit sent undercover officers, led by investigators Ana Martins and Bruce Davis, to his home to do business with him.
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