California cops have released a funny video showing a trio of alleged shoplifters sitting in the back of a cop car as one discovered, apparently for the first time, that ‘stealing is a felony.’
The viral video, released by the Seal Beach Police Department, shows three young women stealing at least $650 worth of items from an Ulta makeup store. After they had their fun and got caught , footage shows them handcuffed in the back of a police vehicle as they catch each other up on new California laws.
“It’s a felony? ” one woman is heard questioning her accomplice in the back of a squad car. “B—h new laws,” replies the other. “Stealing is a felony and this Orange County b—h. They don’t play.”
The Seal Beach Police Department captioned the video with a heads-up: “… a friendly reminder that Proposition 36, which increases punishments for some retail theft and drug possession offenses, went into effect Wednesday morning in California.”
The culprits were identified as Destiny Bender, 24, Deanna Hines, 24, both hailing from Long Beach, and Michelle Pitts, 26, from Signal Hill.
While the portion of the video where they sit in the police car has gone viral, the original footage released by the police department shows surveillance footage from Ulta and Kohl’s, as the young women allegedly made several stops, stealing expensive merchandise from each other.
In addition to their Ulta haul, the girls, dressed in Uggs and carrying their phones in their hands, also hit up a Kohl’s, racking up nearly $1,000 in stolen merchandise.
All three were booked into the Orange County Jail, facing charges of grand theft, conspiracy to commit a crime, and resisting arrest.
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However, the woman in the video had a good reason to be confused. For years, thanks to a 2014 ballot measure, certain nonviolent crimes were charged only as misdemeanors, including retail theft and crime.
“Here in Seal Beach we never believed in the cite and release program, but this new proposition only strengthens our commitment to combatting Organized Retail Theft. Remember folks, don’t steal in Seal.”
When Proposition 47 was enacted in 2014, it reclassified most thefts from felonies to misdemeanors if the stolen amount was less than $950, “unless the defendant had prior convictions of murder, rape, certain sex offenses, or certain gun crimes.”
However, the last several years have led to a rise in robberies around the state, especially at luxury retailers, which have been targetted by groups of men and women, who rush the store together and walk out with thousands of dollars worth of merchandise, that they’ll usually resell online.
In response, California lawmakers passed Proposition 36, known as the Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act, in August of this year. The law aims to reverse parts of Proposition 47 by increasing penalties for some crimes, including robbery.
“Regarding property crimes, the new law allows for the aggregation of stolen property value from multiple thefts,” says the AG’s website. This means multiple smaller thefts can be combined to determine if the overall value meets the felony threshold – which means repeat offenders or serial robberies are now a felony.