Indian woman held in US for stealing items worth Rs 1.11 lakh. Video goes viral

India Today

3 days ago

A video showing a woman allegedly attempting to shoplift goods worth over $1,300 (approx. Rs 1.11 lakh) from a Target store in Illinois has gone viral on social media. The undated bodycam footage shows the woman, reportedly a visitor from India, being confronted and later detained by the police.The footage - originally uploaded as an 18-minute vlog by a YouTube channel named 'Body Cam Edition' - has now been cut into multiple short clips and has surfaced across social media. The original video begins with a Target employee stating that the woman spent nearly seven hours inside the store before attempting to exit with a full shopping cart.advertisement'We saw this woman roaming around the store for the last 7 hours,' the staffer says in the clip. 'She was picking up items, checking her phone, moving between aisles, and eventually tried to walk out the west gate without paying,' he adds.
The video shows the woman repeatedly telling the police that she can pay for the items, asking them to 'end the matter.' However, the officers maintain that the opportunity to pay had passed. 'You want to pay for it now, but you weren't paying for it previously,' one officer says.The woman is heard apologising and insisting she didn't intend to create trouble. When asked for identification, she says she does not live in the United States and adds that her family also lives in India. She later showed an Indian ID, which, according to the officers, did not match the name she initially provided.'I don't want to get into any trouble. I haven't done anything yet,' the woman pleads. The officer replies, 'Are you allowed to steal things in India? I don't know why you keep repeating the same things. It doesn't work like this.'The video ends with the woman being charged with felony theft and taken to the station for further processing.IndiaToday.in cannot independently verify the details mentioned in the clip.Watch the video here: The footage sparked widespread discussion online, with several users questioning the woman's intent and others commenting on the cultural implications.'Who steals for 7 hours? That's a whole shift at Subway - girl, go apply,' a user said. 'There's no language barrier. She knows exactly what she's doing,' another user said.Several users criticised blanket assumptions being made about the Indian community. 'Yes, what she did is wrong, and she should face the consequences. But let's not generalise an entire group over one person,' one of the users said.Another user said, 'Judging a whole community over a single incident is weak logic. This shouldn't be turned into a stereotype.'See the comments here:At the time of writing, IndiaToday.in could not independently access any documents related to the viral video.- Ends