Thief threatened to give Ulta workers COVID while stealing beauty products, WA cops say

A man caught pocketing beauty products at an Ulta store got away with thousands of dollars of merchandise after he threatened to give workers COVID-19, Washington police say.

When one worker confronted the man, who was accompanied by two women, he yelled that they were being racist, according to the Seattle Police Department’s incident report.

The thief then told workers he had COVID and threatened to “cough on them and spit all over the store,” police said.

According to the report:

On Monday, two workers at the White Center Ulta spotted the man concealing products without paying, so one employee approached him and asked him to leave. The suspect told her she was “being racist, that store employees had been following [the suspects] around since they entered the store, and that [the suspects] were being told to leave because of their race.”

He then told both workers that he had COVID and threatened to spread it inside the store. The suspect, who “had snot running from his nose” and red eyes “as if he really were sick,” pulled his mask down and started coughing.

The women with the suspect, who “seemed nervous” and looked to be far younger than him, started rounding up products at his instruction.

The man told the workers, “Now I have to shoot you,” but neither of the employees saw a gun.

One worker told officers “they deal with shoplifters all the time, but there was something about this [man] that caused her to fear that his threats were valid.”

The three suspects ran off with about $8,000 worth of merchandise, police said. The employees weren’t sure what had been taken.

Officers are reviewing the store’s surveillance footage to find the suspects.

This story was originally published April 1, 2021 at 11:00 AM with the headline "Thief threatened to give Ulta workers COVID while stealing beauty products, WA cops say."