Manhattan Beach Shoplifting From Sephora, Judicial Diversion

Prior to speaking to police, she was in Sephora for about 45 minutes. A loss prevention officer noted that our client seemed “very strange – she was paying more attention to where store employees were than shopping.” The loss prevention officer then noticed that our client was carrying a CVS bag and seemed to be clutching it quite firmly. While he did not see her take anything and place it in the bag, he became suspicious.

In 30 Words or Less: Our client, age 25, shoplifted over $350 from Sephora in Manhattan Beach. When stopped by loss prevention outside the store, she ran through the parking lot, eventually being arrested a few hundred yards away. Case resolved through judicial diversion with a dismissal after the client fulfilled the requirements of judicial diversion.

He went into the back office to review store security tapes of the areas where our client had been. In looking at the tape, he saw her place some store items in the CVS bag and some in her purse.

Our client then went to the store’s cash register and paid for a few items, but nothing out of her purse or her bag. The loss prevention officer then followed our client outside the store and stopped her. He identified himself as a loss prevention officer for Sephora and that he asked our client to show him the contents of her CVS bag and her purse.

Our client then looked at the loss prevention officer for a few seconds, before she threw her shopping bags at the loss prevention officer and ran off, away through the parking lot. The loss prevention officer yelled over to another mall security officer as our client neared the US Bank. An officer there stopped our client outside the US Bank.

The Manhattan Beach Police Department was called and our client was handcuffed. She then spontaneously made the admissions to police as described above. She was then taken to the police station and booked.

Torrance Courthouse

---