The dust had barely settled on last month’s shoplifting incident at a Target store involving an Indian tourist in the U.S. when another case has surfaced—this time involving an Indian American woman.
The accused, identified as Yogini Verma, appears in a video released on the YouTube channel @GreatBodyCam. The footage shows her walking away with not just everyday merchandise, but a diamond tennis bracelet valued at $2,300.
Verma, a New Jersey resident, had visited luxury jeweler Mejuri at the Short Hills Mall. Shortly after she left, staff noticed the missing item. Remarkably, she managed to walk out of the store and drive away without being stopped.
READ: Indian woman’s shoplifting arrest at Target goes viral, becomes a community flashpoint (July 15, 2025)
Her luck, however, ran out when a police vehicle pulled her over during a traffic stop. In the video, Verma repeatedly denied taking anything, insisting she had returned the bracelet before leaving the store. She even urged officers to check her belongings, saying, “I have nothing on me, you can check me.”
The story unraveled quickly when officers found the bracelet still on her wrist. Confronted with the evidence, Verma shifted her explanation, claiming she must have left the store with the jewelry by mistake. As her account grew less convincing, she eventually admitted fault, apologized, and asked to call her husband.
The story didn’t end with a single bad decision to steal diamonds. What followed suggested a classic case of a repeat offender.
After Verma was handcuffed, officers asked if she had anything else on her. She vehemently denied it at first, but under repeated questioning admitted she had some merchandise to return. When an officer pointed out that he had seen her leaving the store with multiple bags, she appeared visibly flustered.
That was just the beginning. A search of Verma’s swanky SUV revealed a Pandora’s box of evidence—shopping bags from high-end retailers including Anthropologie, Macy’s, Nordstrom, and J.Crew. Inside were expensive clothes, many still with labels and security tags attached, and notably, no receipts.
By this point, Verma seemed to realize there was little use in spinning stories and admitted the other items had also been shoplifted. When questioned about them, she claimed some were from around Christmas. Asked directly if those too had been stolen, she grew dismissive. At one point, Verma remarked, “You could say that they are stolen too, I don’t know what to say at this point.”
Inside her car, officers discovered hundreds of empty bags, which Verma insisted were merely grocery bags.
When she asked what would happen next, police explained that the merchandise would be examined, she would be taken to headquarters, and a court date would be scheduled.
Once seated in the back of the police car, Verma admitted that much of the merchandise in her vehicle had been stolen earlier that same day, specifically from J.Crew and Nordstrom. Officers also found a Macy’s bag among the haul. When asked whether she had shoplifted from Williams Sonoma, she initially denied it, but after items from the store were recovered, she changed her account—claiming she had been there that day but that those goods were from “another time.”
The video concludes with Verma being formally charged with shoplifting the $2,300 Mejuri diamond tennis bracelet and for possession of multiple stolen items from high-end retailers. She was later released pending a court appearance.
Notably, the Verma incident actually preceded the Target shoplifting case, having occurred on January 1. However, the police bodycam footage was released only recently, leading to her identity—and Indian origin—coming to light.
The incident is likely to reignite debate about the rising number of cases in which members of the so-called “model minority” are implicated in criminal acts. In both recent viral shoplifting cases, the women appeared to come from affluent backgrounds, spoke fluent English, and were fully aware of local laws — yet still attempted to dupe the system.
In Verma’s case, the contrast was especially stark. She was driving a Tesla SUV, dressed in expensive coats, and surrounded by other high-end possessions that suggested financial security. Yet her alleged decision to shoplift — from a $2,300 diamond bracelet to bags of designer merchandise — defied logic and left many questioning the motivations behind such crimes.
1 Comment
Shame on her.