CAPE CORAL, Fla. — A TikTok influencer from Florida has been charged after police said she used fake barcodes to steal more than $500 worth of items from Target.
Marlena Velez has more than 360,000 followers on the social media platform. She posts daily about her life, The New York Times reported.
Police said that she used fake barcodes to lower the prices of household goods and clothing and then scanned them at a self-checkout at the Cape Coral store.
Police were alerted last week through an anonymous tip of the theft that happened on Oct. 30. Cape Coral Police had posted on Instagram looking for information on the woman’s identity. The person who gave officials the tip gave them not only her name, birthday and Instagram handle.
Officers then found Velez’s TikTok account which showed a video she recorded on Oct. 30 wearing the same outfit as seen on surveillance video. The video also showed her picking the items inside the store and then taking them home. In all, 16 items with a value of $500.36 were taken, police said, according to ABC News.
Department spokesperson Mercedes Phillips said, “Everything was documented,” the Times reported.
Velez was charged with a count of petit theft of more than $100, less than $750, officers said, WFTX reported.
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