WILMINGTON, N.C. - One might think, after the police had spent three full days cataloging the adult DVDs and novelties at Greg Sakas' Wilmington video store, Intimate Bliss, that Sakas would have no objection to signing off on permission for the cops to spend another few days in the store without the necessity of the police obtaining an additional warrant.
If so, one would be wrong.
What that meant was that until Wilmington Police Chief Ralph Evangelous can obtain an additional warrant from some local judge, the continuous police presence inside the store is at an end, and customers can once again shop unobserved by people in uniform.
But in fact, the police may have no need to return to Intimate Bliss's premises. Reports from observers of the situation are that the police have seized the backup disks of Sakas' inventory and sales figures, and that may be all they need to attempt to make their case that Sakas' inventory of adult media exceeds the 50 percent threshold that would qualify it as an "adult store."
However, the police have not only seized the store's computer backup disks, they have also removed, apparently pursuant to their warrant, DVDs, magazine packs and novelty items, all of which reportedly have just one thing in common: They all feature cover photos of human genitalia.
Whether those seized items will be used to attempt to prove that Sakas' inventory is predominantly adult, or whether those items will form the basis for a charge of selling obscene matter, is unclear.
Only one thing seems certain: The Wilmington Police Department is out to get Greg Sakas.
