Irvine police are asking the public to help identify a woman accused of shoplifting from multiple stores across Southern Orange County, including a Harbor Freight Tools location where she allegedly walked out with two lithium jump-starter packs. Investigators say she fled the scene in an older-model black Chevrolet SUV, possibly a Traverse, after entering through the passenger side.
The theft happened on August 1 at the Harbor Freight store near Armstrong Avenue and Barranca Parkway, according to a post from the Irvine Police Department on Facebook. The store sits within Irvine’s industrial business corridor, close to major routes like the I-5 and CA-133 freeways that feed into the area’s mix of retail traffic and business parks, per the OC Health Care Agency. Police say the woman has been captured shoplifting from several retail stores throughout Southern Orange County, not just the one location, and are asking anyone with information to come forward.
How Felony Friday Has Worked Before
Irvine PD’s property theft team, including Officer Ziggy Azarcon, regularly uses recurring features like Felony Friday and Wanted Wednesday on Instagram and Facebook to solicit public tips on property crime suspects, according to CBS News California. The department has previously credited public tips generated by these posts with an 11% drop in package thefts. The strategy has produced quick results before: in March, Irvine police arrested a 33-year-old suspect for commercial burglary and credit card fraud within days of featuring her in a Felony Friday post, per New Santa Ana.
Why Shoplifting Across Stores Can Mean Felony Charges
The legal stakes for repeat or multi-store shoplifting in California have shifted significantly since voters passed Proposition 36 in late 2024, which took effect that December. The measure established Penal Code Section 666.1, allowing shoplifting and petty theft under $950 to be charged as wobbler felonies carrying up to three years in custody for repeat offenders with two or more prior theft convictions, according to Ballotpedia. Before Prop 36, petty thefts under that dollar threshold were strictly misdemeanors regardless of a suspect’s criminal history.
State law also now lets prosecutors combine the value of merchandise stolen across separate incidents. Under Assembly Bill 2943 and Proposition 36 provisions effective by January 2025, prosecutors can aggregate stolen merchandise value across multiple thefts, stores, or counties into a single grand theft charge if the thefts stem from one scheme, according to the California Department of Justice. Assembly Bill 1779, effective January 1, 2025, further allows district attorneys to consolidate and prosecute retail theft charges across county lines in a single county when a theft scheme crosses jurisdictional boundaries…