LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In the St. Matthews area, there are hundreds of places to shop but with hundreds of those businesses so too come people, who shoplift instead.
It was the day before Thanksgiving 2019 at the Ulta Beauty store in Mall St. Matthews when two women are now suspected of shoplifting more than $500 worth of goods from the store.
From surveillance video within the store, you can see one of the women conceal something inside of her jacket, you can see her look around and make sure no one is looking, and then she walks out the door without paying
That's when another woman wearing a camoflauge sweatshirt grabs a bag
"Actually one of the Ulta Beauty bags themselves," St. Matthews Police Chief, Barry Wilkerson said.
And starts stuffing it with merchandise
"It looks like she's experienced at what she does," Wilkerson said.
Wilkerson believes the two women were in this together.
The women are then seen taking their time, potentially making sure no has seen them take the items and then exiting.
Police say the pair took off with about $500 worth of goods.
"That's one of our biggest complaints and issues of crime we have in St. Matthews, are shoplifting cases," Wilkerson said.
According to some store's policies, employees are not allowed to approach customers even if they are stealing. But when workers at Ulta Beauty had the chance...
They did the next best thing and got a description of the vehicle for us which was a Ford Escape," said Wilkerson. "We have approximately 800-820 larceny cases this year, and most of those, I believe 400, 430 or so were shoplifting cases."
Wilkerson hopes cases like these bring awareness to shoplifting cases like this in the St. Matthews area.
"Generally this is not their first time. They come back and steal over and over," said Wilkerson. "Ya know, could it get worse? Sure. Someone might get killed. You've seen that when somebody takes money from a cash register at a gas station, it escalates to where someone is seriously injured. That's what we want to avoid."
Do you recognize either of these women? Were you at Ulta the day before Thanksgiving?
If you have a tip, call Crime Stoppers' 24/7 phone line at 582-CLUE
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