Victoria’s Secret Heist Of $21,000 Worth Of Underwear Leads To Two Arrests

Two suspects have been arrested on charges that they stole $21,000 worth of underwear from a Pennsylvania Victoria’s Secret location.

Per Fox 43, the two suspects, one an adult and the other a juvenile, were being investigated for a drug-related crime, but over the course of that investigation, police discovered the merchandise, was well as “booster bags” that were known to have been used in the crime and another theft from a different Victoria’s Secret in Maryland.

The theft took place in the middle of an afternoon in April, and was carried out with shopping bags. The juvenile suspect had acted as a lookout while the adult woman took the items, and the theft itself took only a matter of minutes.

The underwear stolen broke down like this, per the TV station: 375 hipster panties valued at $3,937.50; 375 cut thongs valued at $3,937.50; 1,000 thongs valued at $10,500; and 250 raw-cut hip-hugging panties valued at $2,625.

Fox 43 had earlier reported on the theft itself, and that police had surveillance video of suspects.

Underwear retail theft is a crime that occurs more often than some would think. Last month, per The Redmond Reporter, a man in Redmond, Washington, was arrested for “stealing a bunch of underwear and a vacuum from a local department store.”

Suspect identified in $21,000 Victoria’s Secret panties theft https://t.co/0vc4e8Vlv5

— PennLive.com (@PennLive) May 3, 2019

An article on the website Loss Prevention Systems described as “The Unspoken Crime Of Underwear Theft And How Checkpoint Tags Can Undercut The Shoplifting Underworld” notes that while most clothing retailers place checkpoint tags on many of their items, they tend to skip such measures when it comes to underwear, which has created an opening for shoplifters.

And while the Pennsylvania underwear theft is larger than most, it’s not the most lucrative ever. According to KSL, a Chilean theft ring stole more than $500,000 worth of items from Victoria’s Secret locations throughout the Las Vegas area. Those believed responsible were arrested for another crime, with one of the accused perpetrators telling police that they had purchased the items, thrown away the receipts, and were planning to return to Chile to “open a store.”

Another duo, a mother and daughter known as the “panty bandits,” were caught in early 2018, after stealing $250,000 in Victoria’s Secret items up and down California, per NBC Los Angeles. That duo was known to use a baby stroller in order to hide the stolen items. They were caught after their car was stopped by police, and the stolen items were discovered in their vehicle.