Social media influencer nearly gets away with Target thefts, but cops notice her flaunting shoplifted goods on TikTok: Police

A Florida mom allegedly stole several items from Target by using a barcode trick — but police said she posted incriminating evidence on her popular TikTok account that alerted authorities to her purported crimes.

Marlena Velez, 22, hosts a TikTok page that boasts more than 356,000 followers and receives millions of views. Her “marlenavelezz” account features mom content with her two small children and also highlights products.

‘She essentially incriminated herself.’

But the Cape Coral Police Department accused her of stealing hundreds of dollars in merchandise from a Target store.

The alleged caper commenced Oct. 30 when the loss prevention team at a Target in Cape Coral caught a woman using the self-checkout register without scanning the products’ actual barcodes. Instead, the woman allegedly scanned a fake barcode with cheaper prices.

Police in a press release: “Sixteen items of miscellaneous household goods and clothing were stolen. The total loss of the stolen items was valued at $500.32. Officers verified this with Target’s security cameras.”

Police shared a video screenshot of the suspect on its social media pages and asked the public to help identify the unknown woman.

An anonymous tipster saw the social media post and identified the suspect as Velez. The tipster also provided police with her social media accounts.

“Officers then found Marlena’s TikTok account, which documents her getting ready on October 30, 2024, in the same outfit and glasses and going to Target,” the police said in a statement. “Marlena documents herself picking out items inside the store and placing them in her car after exiting the store.”

The Oct. 30 TikTok post appears to have been deleted from her social media account, but police downloaded the incriminating video before it was scrubbed from her page.

Police on Nov. 21 arrested Velez, and she was booked into the Lee County Jail.

She was charged with one count of petit theft of more than $100, less than $750.

“She essentially incriminated herself,” Officer Riley Carter, the police department’s spokesperson, told the Express Tribune. “Social media gave us an unexpected lead, which expedited her identification and subsequent arrest.”

Velez reportedly has a history of theft.

WBBH-TV reported that she was arrested in 2019 for allegedly stealing her friend’s car and crashing it.

Amanda Santana — Velez’s former high school friend — told the news outlet, “I went to the parking lot, and I’m looking around for my car, and I can’t find it, so I actually, like double-checked, looked on every side, and I was like, ‘Where is my car?’”

Santana continued, “We figured out that she went and crashed my car and totaled it into a ditch at a Dunkin’ on Cape Coral Parkway.”

Police confirmed that the then-17-year-old Velez was arrested in October 2019 and charged with grand theft of a motor vehicle.

Santana claimed, “There’s a restitution that she has not paid for. And actually, not even a dime that she has paid for.”

In July 2023, police records show Velez was arrested for shoplifting kitchen items worth $63 from a Walmart in Cape Coral.

The police report noted that security camera footage captured “a female, later identified as Marlena Velez, in the self-checkout under ringing items by scanning one item, then placing another item underneath the scanned item …”

Velez pleaded no contest to the charges and completed an anti-theft course. She was on probation for six months until last month.

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