TikTok influencer arrested after posting videos of allegedly stolen Target loot

These public social media pages helped police connect Velez to the theft, the affidavit said.

Police said they found a video posted on TikTok that showed Velez getting ready on the day of the theft and wearing the same outfit as the woman seen in the Target security video — a brown shirt, brown pants and glasses . Velez filmed herself selecting the items in the store and then taking them home, police said. According to the probable cause affidavit, the tipster also provided “unique details” about Velez, including that she had two children and a tattoo of a star sign on her left wrist, which police said matched that of the woman in the security footage.

“Everything has been documented,” Mercedes Phillips, a spokeswoman for the department, said in a video posted to her Instagram account.

Velez told the officer who arrested her that she did not remember stealing from Target, and after being shown a photo of the woman from the store’s security video, she “verbally confirmed” that she was the woman in the photo and video is what the probable cause affidavit says.

According to the affidavit, Velez said several times in the Lee County Jail that he had “learned the lesson” he had learned. The officer who arrested her asked her in jail if she still had the stolen goods, and she allegedly responded that she may still have some of the items, “including some Christmas decorations,” the affidavit states.

Phillips thanked the community for their help in identifying Velez.

Velez was arrested and charged with petit theft. She was released on $150 bail and is due in court on Dec. 10, according to court records. She could not immediately be reached at a number or email address listed for her or through her TikTok account.