A Lake County judge has ordered a 20-year-old Baltimore man held without release pending trial, after prosecutors said he served as lookout while two women cleared out nearly $16,000 in Dior cosmetics from a Deer Park Sephora in roughly five minutes, then allegedly moved on to hit two more Sephora stores the same day.
Francesco Bambaloi faces one count of burglary, a Class 2 felony, and one count of retail theft, a Class 3 felony, in connection with the August 2025 theft at the Sephora inside Deer Park Town Center, according to Lake and McHenry County Scanner. Prosecutors allege that two females and a male entered the store around 5:22 p.m. on August 12, 2025, with the women placing display items and emptying inventory drawers into shopping bags while Bambaloi kept watch, and that the group left without paying around 5:27 p.m., about five minutes after walking in.
A store loss prevention officer told deputies the same three people were behind similar thefts the same day at Sephora locations in Schaumburg and at Old Orchard mall in Skokie, the outlet reports. A Lake County Sheriff’s Office detective later received reports and surveillance video from Skokie police describing three people fleeing the scene in a maroon Dodge Grand Caravan.
Flock Cameras and a Felony Vehicle Alert Tie the Case Together
Investigators identified the suspect vehicle as a 2019 maroon Dodge Grand Caravan, the same vehicle that Plymouth Township police in Michigan flagged as a felony vehicle on August 18, 2025, after two females allegedly stole cosmetics in that jurisdiction. A Plymouth Township sergeant told the Lake County detective that cosmetics had similarly gone missing from stores in that area, and per the same account, Flock license plate-reader hits for the Dodge matched the date, time and location of both the Deer Park and Skokie thefts…