TikToker who allegedly flaunted stolen goods online arrested for shoplifting from same place

A TikToker who was arrested after reportedly flaunting her haul of stolen goods online has been arrested again for allegedly shoplifting from the same shop.

22-year-old Marlena Velez was first arrested for allegedly stealing from a Target store in Cape Coral, Florida on 30 October. She was identified thanks to TikTok where she had shown off the stolen items in a since-deleted video.

Now, Velez has been arrested again and accused of shoplifting from the same retailer. This time, police recognised her from the previous incident.

Police claimed that after her initial arrest, Velez had been recorded on their security cameras saying, “Lesson learned”. However, it seems Velez didn’t take heed of her own words as she allegedly did the same thing a matter of weeks later.

She was taken into police custody on Saturday (30 November), according to a Facebook post by the Cape Coral Police Department. Velez faces another allegation of petit theft (where stolen property amounts to more than $100, but less than $750 in value).

"Officers recognized Marlena Velez from a prior arrest and were able to positively identify her," the Cape Coral Police Department explained.

They also used security footage from the store to corroborate her identity, as an image of her family, which was the background on her mobile phone, was the same as an image she had posted on her Instagram account.

She is accused of scanning barcodes for items worth less in value than those she was placing in her bags.

CNN reports the most recent alleged theft involved 16 items, labelled as miscellaneous household goods and clothing, which totalled $225.

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