Marlena Velez, 23, has over 500,000 TikTok followers who tune into her page for lifestyle content such as the popular “shopping haul.” For the uninitiated, that simply means an influencer showing followers what they just bought during their latest shopping splurge. The only thing that makes Velez unique, however, is that she’s forming a habit of not paying whenever she goes to Target to get new things.
Velez was first arrested in Nov. 2024 after attempting a petty crime at Target, where she scanned $500 worth of items at a store in Cape Coral, Florida, using false barcodes with cheaper prices. She was caught on a security camera hurriedly trying to get the crime done in the least attention-grabbing way possible.
