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‘Underwear underworld’ uncovered by police in Northern Virginia

A three-man retail theft crew now has their panties in a bunch after being arrested for allegedly stealing over $24,000 worth of merchandise — mostly underwear from Victoria’s Secret.

Fairfax County Police Capt. Dana Ferreira said the thieves stole the items Wednesday in Prince William County. Later in the day, they drove to Tysons Corner Center, and detectives were alerted about the car through their automated license plate recognition system.

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CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE: Nearly $24,000 worth of merchandise from the Tysons Corner mall was stolen this week. (Courtesy Fairfax County Police)

“They immediately got to work and located that vehicle in the garage,” Ferreira said. “And we were able to use the mall’s cameras to determine who dropped off several passengers that were moving about the mall.”

After taking the suspects into custody, officers found the stolen undergarments, which were from Victoria’s Secret, police said. Detectives are only aware of the alleged thefts in Prince William County, but are working to see if the suspects committed similar thefts in other areas.

“They stole them from a relatively high-value retailer,” Ferreira said. “So they’re items that would normally sell for a pretty high cost. The suspects probably believed they could sell them at a lower cost than the retailer was charging and still make a healthy profit.”

Ferreira said they are seeing a rise in larceny offenses in the area and are making a concerted effort to disrupt these operations to show thieves it’s not even worth coming to the D.C. region to perpetrate these crimes.

Felix Perez, 57, Amauri Roman Sanabia Balbuena, 44, both of New Jersey, and 38-year-old Jonathan Peralta Cabrera, of New York, are being charged with grand larceny and other related charges.

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