Homestead police: If you bought airbags from this man, do this

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Homestead police issued an urgent safety message Friday after an auto shop owner was jailed on 307 felony charges.

Michael Keith Reid, 61, the owner of Mike’s Auto Miami at 777 W. Mowry Drive, is accused of dealing in counterfeit airbags.

Miami-Dade police arrested him Wednesday after they said they found a trove of fake airbags at his shop, some of which were junk-filled.

The search came, authorities said, after Homeland Security Investigations agents in North Carolina intercepted a shipment of phony Honda airbags from the United Kingdom, bound for Mike’s Auto Miami.

The Homestead Police Department, which was part of the investigation, along with federal authorities, put out a social media message to Reid’s customers Friday.

The agency posted on Facebook that customers who bought airbags from Mike’s Auto Miami should “have your vehicle inspected and promptly notify local authorities if you suspect you have a counterfeit airbag.”

In Reid’s arrest report, Miami-Dade police highlighted the dangers counterfeit airbags can pose.

“The existence of these airbags, and their possible installation into the vehicles of unsuspecting purchasers creates a serious health and safety risk to the public,” detectives wrote. “The airbags in question are not manufactured to the same quality or standards as those manufactured by the Honda Motor Corporation and as such their timely operation in a time of dire need cannot be readily assured.”

Police said data from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration “has shown that these counterfeit airbags consistently malfunction, ranging from simple nondeployment during a crash to the expulsion of metal shrapnel during deployment.”

According to the arrest report, police found 282 counterfeit airbags during Wednesday’s operation, most labeled as being from Honda and Acura, but also fake airbags labeled with the Chevrolet, Toyota, Nissan, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz brands.

“In addition to the counterfeit airbags, four hoax Chevrolet airbags, which were junk-filled, nonfunctional, and made to give the appearance of an operational airbag were also located,” police wrote.

Police said Reid, who couldn’t provide an airbag log as required by Florida law, told investigators he paid $200 per airbag regardless of the make or model of the vehicle and admitted that $700 is the normal, low-end retail price for an airbag.

The report states he also acknowledged that genuine airbag boxes carry explosive warning labels and the boxes he had do not and “were easily crushed.”

Police said the seized airbags were worth $281,766.

Local 10 News went to the auto shop, where a man who said he’s a friend of Reid’s defended him.

“If he would have known, he would have never did it,” the friend said.

“You don’t think he knew?” Local 10 News reporter Janine Stanwood asked.

“I don’t think...I’m sure he didn’t know,” the man said.

He later continued by saying that Reid is “not that type of dude.”

“As cheap as those parts were?” Stanwood asked.

“Look, I know Mike,” he replied. “If he would have known something, he would have never done it.”

As of Friday morning, Reid, who lives in the Kendall area, remained in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on 306 counts of importing fake or junk-filled airbags and one count of counterfeiting more than $20,000 in goods.

“The court’s concern is that he stops selling these airbags,” Miami-Dade Judge Mindy Glazer said during a bond court hearing. “The court’s concern is that he’s selling merchandise that can hurt so many people.”

He was later given a $225,000 bond.