The rise of social media has created a generation of people who use it to try and get famous.
Pushing the envelope with outlandish stunts comes with a price.
And a Florida TikTok influencer was arrested after she made the worst mistake possible.
TikTok star videos help the police arrest her
An alarming 57% of Gen Z want to become influencers on social media.
These people try to make a career out of recording their lives
In the crowded market of social media influencers, they must turn to more outrageous stunts to stand out and get attention.
Marlena Velez, a 22-year-old Florida woman, built a following of more than 350,000 people on the Chinese social media app TikTok making videos about shopping and self-care.
Velez’s habit of recording every aspect of her life came back to bite her.
A Target in Cape Coral, Florida reported that a woman stole more than $500 worth of goods from the store at a self-checkout.
The woman did not scan the barcodes on the items she had in her basket but used a sheet of barcodes she brought in that had lower prices on them.
She was able to scam the store with this switcharoo on prices.
The Cape Coral Police Department posted a photo of the woman online to help identify her.
An anonymous tip came to the police that the woman in question could be Velez.
“An anonymous caller saw the post on social media and gave a possible identification for the suspect as Marlena Velez,” the Cape Coral Police said in a statement. “The anonymous caller also provided officers with Marlena’s Instagram handle.”
The police searched Velez’s social media profiles and made a startling discovery.
She was wearing the same outfit and glasses as the woman in the photo from Target on the day of the theft.
A tattoo on her wrist matched the one that the woman in the photo had.
A video was uncovered that showed Velez shopping in Target and putting her items in her car on the same day as the robbery.
Sharing too much information proves costly for Florida TikTok star
Cape Coral Police Department spokeswoman Mercedes Phillips admitted that Velez made their job easier for them.
“Everything was documented, even the outfit that she wore,” Phillips said. “It shows her getting ready with the outfit, and even her glasses, and all of that matches in her TikTok with the attempt-to-identify photo that we put out.”
Velez told the police repeatedly in the Lee County Jail that her arrest was a “lesson learned.”
She admitted that she was the woman in the photo but claimed that she did not remember stealing any of the items from Target.
Some of the items stolen were Christmas decorations that she hoped to use in a video for her TikTok.
The TikTok influencer had previously been arrested for stealing the car of a high school classmate and wrecking it when she was 17.
Velez was charged with petty theft and released after posting $150 in bail.
She learned a hard lesson about trying to record every aspect of her life and putting it on the internet.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
