Woman’s ‘prepare with me’ video results in arrest as cops say ‘she incriminated herself’
A TikTok influencer has landed herself in hot water after bragging about items she allegedly shoplifted in a video to her more than 300,000 followers.
Florida-based Marlena Velez was arrested and is now facing petty theft charges for reportedly stealing more than £398 ($500) worth of goods from her local Target store in Cape Coral on October 30, according to the Fort Myers News-Press. The retail giant’s loss prevention team informed the local police that a shoplifter was purportedly caught on CCTV at a self-checkout register, where they scanned a bogus barcode that listed lower prices for the items in their trolley.
Cops said the 22-year-old stole 16 items including household goods and clothes.
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Officers checked and confirmed Target’s security footage and then posted a snap of the suspect on the department’s social media account hoping the public could identify her.
Velez was then identified by an anonymous caller claiming to be one of her followers, who provided officers with her Instagram handle, which had a link to her TikTok account, police said.
Her TikTok page featured a get-ready-with-me video from the day of the alleged shoplifting incident and showed her wearing the same outfit and glasses the suspect was wearing in the target security footage, according to Fox 4 Now.
“She essentially incriminated herself,” Cape Coral Police Department spokesperson Officer Riley Carter told The Express Tribune. “Social media gave us an unexpected lead, which expedited her identification and subsequent arrest.”
The TikTokker’s crime shone a torch on the influencer’s previous brushes with the law, including a 2019 grand theft auto charge for stealing her friend’s car and crashing it.
Velez’s former high school friend Amanda Santana told NBC 2 that when they were friends attending Ida Baker High School, the then 17-year-old Velez asked Santana to sit in her car during class until lunchtime.
Santana, trusting her friend, handed her the keys but when Santana returned to the parking lot, she said her vehicle and Velez were nowhere to be found. She told the outlet on Friday that, after double-checking the area, they later realised Velez had crashed the car in a ditch.
Santana also claimed Velez never paid for any of the damages, telling the outlet: “It’s like she never felt remorse.”
Velez was also arrested in July 2023 for shoplifting £50 ($63) worth of kitchen items at a Walmart in Cape Coral. She pleaded no contest to the charges last April, and was sentenced to complete an anti-theft course and serve six months of probation – which ended last month.
After her latest arrest, the Cape Coral Police Department said Velez’s social media popularity will not protect her from facing the repercussions of her actions if convicted.
Carter told The Express Tribune: “Influencers should face the same consequences as anyone else. Their public image doesn’t exempt them from the law.”
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