Authorities in New Jersey arrested two people from California in connection with a shoplifting spree that involved thousands of dollars in merchandise at stores from coast to coast.
Claudia Sepulveda, 30, and Nicholas Salvador Rusel, 21, are charged with shoplifting and possession of an anti-shoplifting device in connection with the robbery of a beauty store in Maywood, New Jersey, authorities announced Tuesday.
Police were called to the Ulta beauty store in the Bergen Town Center April 28 after store employees called to say they had two people in the store who they believed had previously stolen $800 in fragrances from the shop, based on surveillance footage of the heist.
Other area stores were advised of the suspects' descriptions and the circumstances surrounding the robbery. A short time later, Sepulveda, who allegedly acted as the thief in the Maywood case, and Salvador Rusel, who allegedly was the lookout, were spotted in the parking lot of another Ulta store in the nearby town of Edgewater.
They hadn't stolen anything from the Edgewater store, authorities said, but the device they had allegedly used to turn off the anti-theft devices in the Maywood store was in their possession, authorities said, and the man and woman were arrested.
In their car, authorities found what they allegedly stole from the store in Maywood, as well as stores in Clifton, East Brunswick, Marlboro and Howell. Charges are pending in those cases.
Authorities later linked the duo to a string of shoplifts at high-end stores in Los Angeles and San Bernardino, California and Utah.
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Details on those thefts weren't immediately available; more charges are expected. It wasn't clear if either suspect had an attorney.
