Video footage shows some brazen thieves in action at a popular retail store in Riverside County.
A witness says the shoplifters calmly walked inside and took anything they wanted.
One even used a wire cutter to carefully cut off security leashes on some expensive purses.
Saturday evening, Lindsey Rodriguez shot a video of a man casually walking out of a Marshalls in Hemet, with his arms full of clothing that Rodriguez says he did not pay for.
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“I worked every single day, 40 hours a week during this whole pandemic, and then I go in and see that, and it's disheartening. It's not Hemet," she says.
Within a 10-minute span, Rodriguez says she spotted three people stealing, including a woman.
Footage shows her using a wire cutter to sever the security wires that connect the purses to the racks.
“People shopping there were just kind of standing there watching. The only thing I figured I could do was get their identities and their license plates and give them to somebody who will do something with them," Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez and her husband Pancho followed the purse thief, who ran to a dark-colored car that quickly drove away. She called 911 and Hemet police say an officer arrived a short time later and ran a license plate, but didn't see anyone suspicious.
“The people that work at Marshalls are working and sit there on the clock and watch these people just steal from everybody,” Rodriguez said.
Police also say no one from Marshalls has reported the crimes so far, which is baffling, according to Rodriguez.
“What is this teaching our children? I don't want my kids to see that kind of stuff when we are going shopping at 7 o'clock at night," she added.
She says she is fed up with crimes like these, which is why she and her husband shot these videos and posted them on social media.
“Citizens have to do something. We need to start standing up for ourselves because nobody else is doing it right now," she added.
NBC4 reached out to Marshalls to find out why they didn’t report the crimes to police, but we are still waiting to hear back.
