Phoenix Police Department
Phoenix Police Department
Phoenix Police Department
Phoenix Police Department
Phoenix Police Department
Robbing runs in the family for this bizarre Brady Bunch.
A Phoenix family of five stole more than $15,000 worth of lingerie and other goods during nine months of attacks on Arizona malls, police said.
The five were arrested Friday at the home they share, prompting Arizona’s 12 News to dub the group “The Alleged Thieving Bunch,” a much less wholesome Brady Bunch.
Police said 48-year-old Elizabeth Rodriguez-Alvarez was the matriarchal leader of the shoplifting ring. Her children — 28-year-old Mario Vargas, 27-year-old Lizzette Vargas and 25-year-old Terri Vargas — were arrested alongside her.
Terri Vargas’ husband, 23-year-old Jose Alvarez-Burgos, was also charged in the robberies, the Phoenix Police Department announced Tuesday.
The Vargas crew sold the stolen items — mostly lingerie and other articles of clothing — at yard sales and bartered the goods for drugs, police said.
The shopping mall raids began in November, and the group swiped items until July, they said.
AZCentral In one shoplifting attack, one of the suspects pepper-sprayed a security guard who tried to stop the thieves. Among the stores targeted: Victoria’s Secret, Dillard’s, Ulta, Express, Charlotte Russe, and Aeropostale at several different Arizona malls.
Police said the family members worked as a team. Some would distract employees so other could slip out of the store with goods, Arizona’s 12 News reported.
The robberies were not always so low key: During one shoplifting spree, a suspect pepper-sprayed a mall security guard who tried to stop the allegedly thieving family.
Phoenix Police Department Officers recovered mounds of stolen goods from the family home. The parking lot assault was captured on surveillance video, but the Vargases got away, cops said.
Police spent two months trying to track down the notorious family. Undercover officers even went to the family’s yard sales to collective evidence.
Finally in July, detectives investigating the rash of robberies found 24 security sensors in the family’s trashcan. They issued a search warrant for the house, and officers found mounds of stolen goods, many with the price tags still on.
