4 Accused In $10,000 Shoplifting Spree
Police Suspect 10 Or More Involved In Organized Theft Ring
POSTED: Thursday, July 2, 2009
UPDATED: 12:17 pm EDT July 3,
2009
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Police are investigating to see if a group charged with stealing from a Belk's department store on Roosevelt Boulevard is involved in a high-priced theft ring.
Police said the thieves in the theft ring walk into swanky stores and walk out with thousands of dollars worth of merchandise.
A Louis Vuitton store at the St. Johns Town Center was one of the store that were robbed. The store even has their own security guard keeping an eye on who's coming and going. But police said the women waited for him to go on break to make their move.
Surveillance shows that the first woman walked in and then her partner walked in right behind her seconds later. The video showed that the women had two bags on her shoulder, one of the women hands a third one off to her friend, and by the time the employee realizes what's going on, they were gone.
That wasn't the only store at the town center that was hit. Two weeks before, police said three women went into the Sephora in the middle of the afternoon and walked out stealing hundreds of dollars worth of expensive perfume.
Minutes after that theft, police think the same women may have come into a beauty store a couple of blocks away with the same motive, stuffing their bags with whatever they could grab.
According to the police report, employees at the store claim there were four other incidents at that store alone over the last week where the crooks made out with nearly $10,000 worth of stuff.
Police arrested four people Wednesday night after they said they walked into a Belk store on Roosevelt Boulevard and walked out with two garbage bags stuffed with clothes all while they had a 7-month-old baby with them. Latricia Brown, Kim Collier, Starr Collier and Andre Stays were all arrested.
Police sources tell Channel 4 they believe a group of 10-15 people, mostly women, are involved in a high-priced theft ring.
Police are investigating these cases because of similarities in the thefts, but so far officers have not said if the four arrested on Wednesday are connected with the town center thefts.
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