Florida woman involved in $91,000 clothing return scheme www.privateofficer.com
At 1 p.m. Tuesday, employees of Bloomingdale’s noticed a man and a woman stealing a Chanel jacket worth about $8,500 and a Jimmy Choo handbag valued at $1,175, according to a Newton police report.
Mall security officers and Newton police canvassed the entire mall with no success until about 7 p.m., when the pair returned to the mall, the report said.
Police arrested Iryna Karp, 23, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., on charges of larceny over $250, receiving stolen property over $250, and possession of four or more falsely embossed credit cards, the report said.
Police said Karp was carrying a fake credit card, but had used a card with her real name to make a purchase at the mall earlier that day.
Officers also found a car, used by Karp and her alleged accomplice, according to the report. The car contained fake credit cards and multiple cellphones, as well as a roll of return tags and high-end merchandise valued at over $91,000, police said.
“Return tags are normally used in the higher end type retail stores in order to return an item in exchange for currency,” the report stated. “It appears that the suspects were stealing from multiple different stores and returning them for currencies at the branch stores.”
Police were unable to locate Karp’s accomplice, who was described as a white male with a thin build and blond hair. He was last seen wearing a black V-neck sweater and dark pants. Police said he is a 34-year-old from St. Petersburg, Fla. Police said they will seek a warrant for his arrest for the same charges as Karp in the report.
At her arraignment today in Newton District Court, Judge Dyanne Klein ordered Karp held on $25,000 bail and told her she cannot go near Bloomingdale’s if released, according to a spokeswoman for the Middlesex district attorney’s office.
Karp’s next court date is a pretrial conference on May 9.
