More information about a TikTok star’s criminal past is coming to light. Marlena Velez, 22, was arrested as a juvenile for stealing a car, among other offenses, according to the Cape Coral Police Department.
According to CCPD, Velez was taken into custody on Thursday after sharing a video of herself stealing $500 worth of goods from a Cape Coral Target. Cape Coral Police used the footage, which went viral, as vital evidence to find her and apprehend her.
According to the CCPD, Velez was charged with grand theft of a motor vehicle when he was 17 years old and apprehended in October 2019.
Marlena Velez has a history of stealing
According to Amanda Santana, a friend of Velez’s from high school, Velez took her automobile, destroying their friendship. Santana revealed their relationship started in a classroom at Ida Baker High School.
According to Santana, things drastically changed a week following that trip. Velez instructed Santana to sit in her car throughout class until noon one morning, according to Santana. Santana claimed that she gave the keys to her friend because she trusted her.
Amanda said : “She had a class with me, and we kind of connected there. We also went on an Orlando trip to Halloween Horror Nights,” “I went to the parking lot, and I’m looking around for my car, and I can’t find it, so I actually, like double-checked, looked on every side, and I was like, where is my car?” “We figured out that she went and crashed my car and totaled it into a ditch at a Dunkin’ on Cape Coral Parkway,”
Velez’s alleged run-ins with the law began with the 2019 automobile theft. Velez was arrested once more in July 2023, according to documents, this time for stealing from a Walmart along Del Prado Boulevard in Cape Coral.
The report stated that video showed “a female, later identified as Marlena Velez, in the self-checkout under ringing items by scanning one item, then placing another item underneath the scanned item…”
She took $63 worth of cooking supplies, according to the CCPD report. Velez entered a no contest plea to the charges in April 2024, according to CCPD records. Prior to last month, she was on probation for six months after completing an anti-theft course, according to the records.
But according to authorities, Velez struck once more on Thursday, robbing the Target store on Pine Island Road of hundreds of dollars’ worth of clothes and home goods.
