Of all the things you shouldn’t record, showing yourself getting dressed in the clothes you wear while allegedly committing a crime should be a no-brainer.
But 22-year-old Marlena Velez records herself doing mostly everything else on her TikTok account — watching “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” her morning shower routine, cooking dinner — so why not tease an alleged shoplifting spree for her nearly 347,000 followers?
Velez was arrested Thursday by Cape Coral, Florida, police when an anonymous tipster recognized still images of the influencer on its social media accounts. She’s dressed in the same tan shirt, tan pants, and glasses seen in a TikTok video showing herself getting ready to leave her home on Oct. 30 — the same day police say she stole nearly $500 in household items and clothing from a local Target.
In the video, which has more than 150,000 views, Velez documents her outing to TJ Maxx and Target, showing herself picking out items and placing them in her cart — items that happened to match the stolen merchandise.
She doesn’t include footage of her using a fake barcode with a cheaper price to scan her items, the process Velez used to allegedly steal the goods from Target, police said. She’s currently facing charges of petit theft for more than $100 and less than $750, Florida’s version of petty theft.
Velez’s arrest provides a reminder that social media “is not real,” one of her followers posted on X.
“This TikTok influencer that I follow got arrested for stealing at Target, and apparently, she’s a serial offender lmao like I would’ve never guessed because her content is so cute/aesthetically pleasing. But…,” the follower commented.
It wasn’t Velez’s first brush with the law, as court records revealed. A former friend who watched Velez build her brand on social media was one of her first victims.
“I was going through nursing school, working my butt off, and she’s out there living her best life, splurging,” Amanda Santana, who met Velez in high school, told NBC 2 in Fort Myers, Florida.
Velez was just 17 years old in October 2019 when she was arrested and charged with grand theft auto after allegedly stealing Santana’s car.
Santana said Velez had asked for her keys so she could sit in the car during lunchtime.
“I went to the parking lot, and I’m looking around for my car, and I can’t find it, so I actually, like, double-checked, looked on every side, and I was like, where is my car?” Santana said.
Santana said Velez drove the car into a ditch at a Dunkin Donuts, totaling the vehicle.
She was arrested again in July 2023 on shoplifting charges from a Cape Coral Walmart. Police said she was “in the self-checkout under ringing items by scanning one item, then placing another item underneath the scanned item.
Velez stole a total of $63 in kitchenware, police said. She pleaded no contest to the charge in April 2024 and was placed on probation for six months, completing her punishment in October. She also completed an anti-theft course as part of her sentence.
Apparently, the lessons didn’t take.
Santana said she hopes her former friend will be held accountable for her misdeeds.
“There’s a restitution that she has not paid for,” Santana said. “And actually, not even a dime that she has paid for it.”
