WASHINGTON — A group of women arrested at Tysons Corner Center on Saturday had stolen goods with them worth tens of thousands of dollars, police said.
“We were notified by Bloomingdale’s staff that there (were) four suspicious women in their store, and essentially, they wanted us to go and check them out,” Officer Tara Gerhard with Fairfax County police told WTOP.
Members of the department’s Christmas Anti-Theft Team, or CATT, who were already patrolling the mall, responded to the scene.
Gerhard said the responding officers then saw the four women returning stolen items.
According to police, when the women were arrested, they were loaded down with more than $29,000 worth of stuff stolen from at least 13 different stores. Police believe the women are part of a large retail crime group targeting stores nationwide.
The accused thieves are facing a total of 26 charges, including obtaining money by false pretenses, credit card larceny, possession of marijuana, possession of burglarious tools, and identity theft.
Fairfax County police CATT teams are made up of officers in uniforms and plain clothes who patrol Fair Oaks Mall, Springfield Town Center, Tysons Corner Center and Tysons Galleria during the holiday season.
“What’s great about the CATT team is sometimes you’ll see them and sometimes you won’t. So, you never know if they’re in the store that you’re in; you never know if they’re just walking behind you in the mall,” Gerhard said.
