A traffic stop in Irvine on Tuesday turned into a rolling beauty haul, after the city’s Real‑Time Crime Center flagged a car allegedly tied to a string of CVS shoplifting cases. Inside, officers said they found roughly $9,000 in cosmetics and arrested three people on suspicion of organized retail theft and related charges.
In a post on the Irvine Police Department’s Facebook page, the department said the Real‑Time Crime Center alerted officers to a vehicle connected to multiple cosmetics thefts. Officers stopped the car near a shopping center with a CVS store, found three occupants inside and seized piles of beauty products the department believes were stolen from CVS locations in Irvine and nearby cities. Detectives are now working to see how many other reported thefts might be tied to the recovered merchandise.
Real‑Time Intel Led Officers To The Car
According to the Irvine Police Department’s Real‑Time Crime Center page, the unit relies on a network of cameras and license‑plate readers that feed information directly to officers. The system quickly checks plates and flags vehicles tied to active cases, giving patrol units instant investigative leads instead of waiting for traditional follow up…