Police: Team of pickpockets targeted HomeGoods shoppers

A group of suspected pickpockets was arrested on Friday after targeting customers at a popular home furnishing store in Irvine, California, according to police.

On Wednesday, the Irvine Police Department said officers conducted surveillances on multiple shopping centers Friday afternoon due to recent thefts.

At around 3 p.m., officers noticed a group of two men and two women walking quickly toward a car parked near a HomeGoods store. The group kept looking over their shoulders, and one of the men folded up a temporary license plate on the back of the car, making it unreadable.

Officers followed the car to the Irvine Spectrum, where they made a traffic stop. It was then that officers found a wallet that didn’t belong to any of the four, and a magnetic device used to decode credit card information, police said.

The four were arrested on suspicion of burglary, conspiracy to commit burglary, grand theft and possession of identity theft material, and booked into Orange County Jail. They were identified as Maria Beltran, 52, and Thonson Yeamier Gomezbarreto, 32, of North Hollywood, and Laidy Viviana Moraleon, 36, and William Alberto Melomontenegro, 38, of Los Angeles.

The wallet was returned to the victim and the credit card had not been used by the suspects.

Irvine police released security footage of the group allegedly attempting similar tactics on another HomeGoods customer. In the video, one of the women appears to attempt to distract a shopper while one of the men reaches for items in her possession.

That attempt was unsuccessful, police said.

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