FRONTENAC, Mo. (First Alert 4) – Two people have been arrested and charged after tens of thousands of dollars in merchandise was stolen from a luxury resale boutique in Frontenac.
The theft happened around 2:20 a.m. Tuesday at YINOVE LUXE, when two people in hoods broke into the shop and took designer handbags and a hat. Frontenac Police said in the criminal complaint that the stolen merchandise was valued at $35,301.
Security video captured the break-in. Owner Shuwen Zou said he received an alert from his store’s alarm system early Tuesday morning.
“I look at the phone, from the camera, I see two people break in from the front door and use a bag and took a bunch of bags from there and some bags from that wall, and ran out like within 20 seconds,” Zou said.
Zou immediately called police and came to the store to help with the investigation.
“They know what they want. They are very straightforward, grab a few Goyard bags from this side and a Celine bag and some Chanel bags,” Zou said.
Zou said 12 items were stolen from YINOVE LUXE. He said he is still working to finalize the total loss amount with the insurance company, but it is substantial.
“The situation is definitely frustrating because we need to go through insurance claim, and rebuild the store, do repair, and also recover our stocks,” Zou said.
After the theft, Zou said he received messages and phone calls from other local businesses offering to watch for the stolen merchandise.
“I’m really touched that I received many, many DMs and phone calls from local business and they asked me just, you know, let them know what had been stolen and they will keep an eye on it,” Zou said.
On the same day as the burglary, Jerrail West went to one resale shop and was captured on video attempting to sell a Louis Vuitton men’s crossbody bag valued at $1,885, according to a criminal complaint filed in St. Louis County Circuit Court. The owner of the store refused to buy the bag because he knew it was stolen and recognized West from previous suspicious sales, the complaint said.
Next, Lamont Walker and West went to Clothes Mentor to again attempt to sell the bag, according to the complaint. Hannah Benz, general manager at Clothes Mentor St. Louis, alerted police. She said her team remains vigilant to people trying to sell stolen items, after her store was also victimized by burglaries. Reaching out to other small resale businesses, she said was able to ID one of the suspects because of frequent visits to the store looking to resell items.
“Whenever he came back, I knew instantly that it was stolen from somewhere else, and I wanted to make sure it got back to its rightful home because we just never want to partake in the buying of stolen goods or profiting off anyone else’s loss,” Benz said.
The complaint said Benz took possession of the bag to verify its authenticity.
After Walker left the store, Benz called police to notify them of the recovered item. Walker and West returned the next day at their appointed time with Benz. Police were waiting and arrested both Walker and West, according to the complaint.
“The community that we’ve built is amazing. Huge shout-out to the girls over at the Vault in Brentwood, Reset in Maplewood. Such amazing help and information they were able to give me,” Benz said.
She added, “Without that community and that sense of just wanting to help each other, I definitely don’t think any of us would be able to do it. I definitely don’t think we see each other as competitors, but more of a team and everything’s better when we always work as a team.”
Benz said similar incidents have been on the rise in the past five years.
“I will say a lot of them are very similar in M.O. So I think, you know, as a whole and as an industry, we’re hoping that this can be like the start to putting all that to an end and us just all feeling safe again,” Benz said.
Benz said she was able to return the item to YINOVE LUXE. Zou said one of the 12 stolen items has been recovered and he is working to recover the rest.
“It’s amazing how the police department and local community work together to make them get caught this fast,” Zou said.
Zou said he is working with insurance to see what additional security measures he should take. He said he wants to provide a private shopping experience for St. Louis fashion lovers in-store and online.
“I think anything can happen to a small business, anything can happen for a business. We just stay positive when something happens, try to fix it,” Zou said.
Walker and West were charged Thursday with felony receiving stolen property. West was also charged with two other counts of felony receiving stolen property related to a separate incident in April. Frontenac police said the investigation remains ongoing.
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