MCLEAN, Va. — Three people are facing charges after police say they located an organized retail theft crew from Philadelphia in Virginia last week.
According to the Fairfax County Police Department, officers with the Tysons Urban Team (TUT) received a tip from Sak’s Fifth Ave Regional Loss Prevention team that Chevy Chase, Maryland location reportedly a retail theft crew had just left the store in a gold Chevrolet Impala with Pennsylvania tags.
"They had identified a crew that had been going up and down the east coast from Philadelphia down to their store in Maryland, stealing high end purses from Saks Fifth Avenue stores," said Lt. William Arnest, who is the Assistant Commander of the Fairfax County Police Department's McLean District.
"The crew got spooked and didn't steal anything but Saks Fifth Avenue spread the word to the Tysons Urban Team," said Arnest.
In November, WUSA9 profiled the Tysons Urban Team, which focuses on retail theft prevention and launched in 2013.
"The team last year in 2022, made 855 arrests," said Arnest.
The TUT officers used License Plate Recognition software to find the car and learned not only had the suspect crossed into Virginia, but they were nearby. Police say the car was located while heading in the direction of a second Saks Fifth Avenue in McLean.
Investigators say the suspects were seen walking into the store and grabbing multiple high-end handbags, as well as other luxury items, before heading to the exit without paying. When they were approached by employees, the suspects reportedly ran.
However, Arnest says the TUT officers were already nearby. He says they were able to take one of the suspects into custody quickly. A second suspect was found hiding in a dumpster and the third was taken into custody a short time later.
Fairfax County Police say $15,000 worth of stolen property was also recovered.
Police have identified the suspects as:
- Ericka Williams, 26, of Philadelphia - Charged with grand larceny, larceny with intent to sell or distribute, conspire to commit larceny, organized retail theft, and obstruction of justice – resisting arrest
- Amin Shamsid-Deen, 30, of Philadelphia - Charged with grand larceny, larceny with intent to sell or distribute, conspire to commit larceny, organized retail theft, and obstruction of justice – resisting arrest.
- Tunisia Amina Shamsid-Deen, 32, of Philadelphia - Charged with grand larceny (2x), larceny with intent to sell or distribute, conspire to commit larceny, organized retail theft, possession of schedule I/II drug, and disregarding signal by the law-enforcement officer to stop – eluding police.
All three suspects were taken to the Adult Detention Center where they are being held without bond.
FCPD credits the license plate readers with helping them nab the trio.
"License plate readers are invaluable for us. We've been able to solve many crimes with them not just thefts in stores. We've been able to catch a lot of car thieves including ones in armed carjacking's," said Lt. Arnest.
In March, WUSA9 spoke with Holly Beilin, a spokesperson for Flock Safety.
"The cameras are solar powered and they also operate through LTE like a cell phone that's how they transmit images to the cloud," said Beilin.
Beilin says when a vehicle passes they take a picture of the back of the vehicle and hone in on the license plate.
"That plate is then compared to different state and national crime databases like the Amber Alert list and able to detect if that vehicle is known stolen vehicle, associated with a wanted offender or missing or endangered person," said Beilin.
The ACLU has voice privacy concerns, but FCPD says no personal or driver information is captured by the cameras. They also say the department has chosen not to get alerts for violations regarding immigration status and does not share information to federal authorities regarding their investigations into immigration enforcement.
They say the images collected by the cameras are stored on a cloud server for 30 days, before they are permanently deleted.
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