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- By Shivangi Sharma
- Tue, 15 Jul 2025 11:33 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
An Indian woman is facing a felony theft charge in the United States after allegedly shoplifting merchandise worth USD 1,300 (approximately Rs 1.08 lakh) from a Target store in Illinois. A viral bodycam video from the May incident shows her pleading with police officers to let her pay for the items and “end the matter,” but officers firmly declined her requests, stating the opportunity to pay had long passed. The woman, identified as Anaya, mentions in the video that she was from India.
According to store employees, the woman spent over seven hours wandering through the aisles, selecting items and continuously checking her phone. “We saw this woman roaming around the store for the last 7 hours,” a staffer is heard saying in the video. “She was picking up items, checking her phone, moving between aisles, and eventually tried to walk out the west gate without paying.”
Target’s security team apprehended the woman at the exit and brought her to a back room, where police were called in. Bodycam footage shows the woman apologising and explaining she was visiting from India and had planned to purchase gifts for her family. She insisted she had no intention of creating trouble and repeatedly offered to pay for the items.
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Police Unmoved By Pleas
The officers remained unconvinced. “You want to pay for it now, but you weren’t paying for it previously,” one officer responds to her plea. She initially claimed she did not live in the US and that her family was in India. When asked for identification, she provided an Indian ID, which reportedly did not match the name she had first given the police.
As the interaction continued, the woman told officers, “I don’t want to get into any trouble. I haven’t done anything yet,” to which an officer retorted, “Are you allowed to steal things in India? I don’t know why you keep repeating the same things. It doesn’t work like this.”