Makeup Heist of the Century: Thieves Steal $4.2M in Eye Shadow

By George Khoury, Esq. on March 13, 2017 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Maybe these thieves were born knowing exactly what they were going to steal, or maybe it was an accident. Regardless, the LAPD have been investigating the theft of 100,000 packages of Anastasia Beverly Hills brand "Modern Resistance" eye-shadow from a warehouse. The value of each package is approximately $42, which makes the total heist worth approximately $4.2 million.

Despite reports only reaching the media this week, the unbelievably large and shockingly valuable heist happened at the end of January. Reports lack many details, however, police believe that the thieves entered the warehouse through a hole cut into the ceiling.

Cops Lack Foundation, Thieves Had Cover Up

The LAPD, after over a month of investigating with no arrests, requested the assistance of the public in finding out what happened. The last time a Los Angeles area county police had to investigate a massive makeup heist, it only involved about $60k worth of cosmetics, and was caught on camera.

While large scale cosmetics heists may sound like strange, uncommon crimes, it occurs more often than one might think. Cosmetics are expensive, and are also rather compact in size. One case or shelf of cosmetics in a store can easily have products with a retail value worth thousands of dollars, and many high end products can boast price tags in excess of a few hundred dollars per item. Also, cosmetics are incredibly popular items for shoplifters, and stores can also be targets of "smash and grab" style robberies.

Petty Theft or Grand Larceny

Theft crimes tend to vary based upon the value of the item(s) stolen as well as the method of stealing. For instance, shoplifting a relatively cheap piece of makeup is likely to result in a small slap on the wrist, whereas stealing a box valued at a few hundred dollars, or over a thousand dollars, can result in felony charges and serious jail time.

Additionally, if there is property destruction, force, coercion, trespassing, or breaking and entering occurring along with theft, the criminal charges can be enhanced, or made more serious.

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