A woman and two teenagers face grand theft charges after stealing a Hermès Birkin bag valued at nearly 16,000 dollars from a luxury consignment store in Sunny Isles Beach, according to reported by the Miami Herald.
The incident occurred on Wednesday morning at The Brand Original, a clothing store located on Collins Avenue, when the three suspects entered the premises pretending to be interested in the displayed clothing.
According to the employee Ivan Retivov, the operation was swift and calculated: “There were three girls who entered the store, started looking around, and then she approached the bag, started to look at it, and simply ran out with the bag.”
Retivov tried to stop them unsuccessfully: "I started chasing them, but they fled because their car was right there, next to the store. I tried to grab [one of the suspects], pull her out of the car, but they drove away."
The three fled in a black Cadillac CT4 with Louisiana license plates heading towards Fort Lauderdale, but the detectives from Sunny Isles Beach acted immediately: they accessed the area's surveillance cameras, identified the suspects, and tracked the vehicle, including its plates.
The Fort Lauderdale police arrested Monique Jonell Williams, 18 years old, and two minors aged 16 on Thursday. All three confessed to the theft and identified themselves in the security camera footage. Williams was held on a bail of $2,500.
The sergeant Brian Schnell from the Sunny Isles Beach Police Department emphasized the role of technology in solving the case: "In 2026, across the country, the technology available to police departments is combined with traditional good police work, and we are solving these crimes faster and more successfully than ever."
The bag, however, had already changed hands: the suspects sold it for just $1,000 to a woman whom they convinced she was buying a replica. Upon learning that the item was stolen, the buyer returned it to the store this Saturday.
"They sold this bag to a woman for $1,000, marketed it as a replica, and the woman didn’t know it was stolen. So she simply returned it to us," Retivov recounted.
Sunny Isles Beach, known for its high concentration of wealthy residents and luxury tourists, has been the scene of several designer item thefts in 2026: in March, three women were arrested for stealing Goyard and Prada handbags from beach chairs at the Aqualina Resort.
The police also reported that the two teenagers face similar charges in several other cities, indicating a pattern of thefts across multiple jurisdictions.
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