Palo Alto Police Arrest 2 Organized Retail Theft Suspects from Los Angeles
PALO ALTO (CBS SF) -- Police in Palo Alto on credited a prompt call from a Stanford Shopping Center merchant leading to the Thursday evening arrests of two organized retail theft suspects from Southern California.
In a press release, police said they received a call about 6:45 p.m. Thursday reporting a shoplifting in progress at the Victoria's Secret located at the Stanford Shopping Center at 180 El Camino Real. The reporting store employee said a male suspect was stuffing merchandise down his pants to conceal it while appearing to shop with a female accomplice.
As officers headed to the location, the suspects left the store without paying for the items and went to their vehicle in the parking lot with the employee following them. Arriving officers detained the suspects without incident at their rented 2021 Ford Explorer.
The investigation revealed that the male suspect shoplifted more than $500 worth of bras from Victoria's Secret. Officers additionally found several trash bags filled with suspected stolen property in their car. In total, police discovered almost 400 separate new clothing items in a variety of sizes from retailers including Express, Hollister and J. Crew with a value totaling over $18,000.
Police are still investigating when and where the suspected thefts from those other stores occurred took place, but were able to confirm that some of the items were stolen from a Victoria's Secret in Fresno on February 8. Officers also found burglary tools frequently used in the act of shoplifting inside the vehicle.
Police booked 59-year-old Jose Moises Mujica of Van Nuys and 62-year-old Remedios Reyes of North Hollywood into the Santa Clara County Main Jail for felony organized retail theft, felony possession of stolen property, and misdemeanor possession of burglary tools.
Anyone with information about these suspects or an incident they might be involved in is asked to call our 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to (650) 383-8984.
