TikTok Influencer Arrested After Allegedly Showing Shoplifted Target Merchandise on Video: ‘She Lived Recklessly’

A TikTok influencer from Florida was arrested after a video that was sent to her more than 300,000 times. She showed off to her followers the merchandise she allegedly shoplifted from a local Target store.

Marlena Velez, 22, faces petty theft charges for allegedly stealing more than $500 from a Target store in Cape Coral on Oct. 30, according to prosecutors. Fort Myers News Press.

The chain’s loss prevention team told Cape Coral police that a surveillance camera at the self-checkout allegedly caught a shoplifter scanning a fake barcode indicating lower prices for items in the cart.

Police said the suspect stole 16 items, including household items and clothes, worth $500.32.

Officers reviewed and verified Target surveillance footage and then posted a photo of the suspect on the department’s social media account in hopes that the public would be able to identify her.

Velez, who posts videos on TikTok about her life as a mother of two, was then identified as the thief by an anonymous caller posing as one of her followers, police said.

The anonymous caller also provided officers with his Instagram nickname, which included a link to Velez’s TikTok account.

Her TikTok page included a video of her getting ready for the day of the alleged shoplifting and showed her wearing the same outfit and glasses as the suspect in the target surveillance camera footage, according to Fox 4 Now.

The since-deleted TikTok video also showed him documenting how he selected items in Target and later placed them in the car.

“She basically incriminated herself,” said Cape Coral police spokesman Officer Riley Carter Express Tribune.

“Social media gave us an unexpected lead, which accelerated her identification and subsequent arrest.”

Velez was arrested Thursday and charged with one count of petty theft over $100 or less than $750.

The TikTokker’s crime also revealed her prior criminal history.

In 2019, when she was just 17 years old, Velez was arrested on auto theft charges for stealing her friend’s car and crashing it.

said Velez’s former high school friend, Amanda Santana NBC2 that when they were friends attending Ida Baker High School, Velez asked Santana to sit in her car during classes until noon. Trusting her good friend, Santana handed her the keys.

However, when Santana returned to the parking lot, she found that her vehicle and Velez were nowhere to be found.

“I went to the parking lot and I’m looking for my car and I can’t find it, so I actually checked, looked everywhere and thought: where is my car? ” Santana told the outlet on Friday.

“We figured she went and crashed my car and drove it into a ditch at Dunkin’ on Cape Coral Parkway.”

Santana claims Velez never paid for any damages.

“It’s as if she never felt remorse,” she told the portal.

Velez was also arrested in July 2023 for shoplifting at a Walmart in Cape Coral.

According to NBC 2, the store’s report states that she “scanned one item and then placed another item under it”;

Velez stole $63 worth of kitchen items, pleaded not guilty to the charges last April and was ordered to complete an anti-theft course and serve a six-month probation that ended last month.

“She has been living recklessly, flaunting a lifestyle that does not match her actions,” Santana said.

Following her latest arrest, the Cape Coral Police Department stated that following Velez on social media would not protect her from consequences for her actions if she was found guilty.

“Influencers should face the same consequences as everyone else,” Carter said Express Tribune.

“Their public image does not exempt them from the law.”