Cops clean house on beauty store crooks




SWAT TEAM—Above, police prepare to enter the Van Nuys apartment of 50-year-old Adrea Morales, who was arrested for receiving stolen property in connection with a September theft at Ulta Beauty store in Calabasas, During the search warrant more than $8,000 in retail items were recovered. At right, the store at 23741 Calabasas Road. Courtesy of LASD

SWAT TEAM—Above, police prepare to enter the Van Nuys apartment of 50-year-old Adrea Morales, who was arrested for receiving stolen property in connection with a September theft at Ulta Beauty store in Calabasas, During the search warrant more than $8,000 in retail items were recovered. At right, the store at 23741 Calabasas Road. Courtesy of LASD

Detectives from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station announced they arrested two women in connection with a recent crime spree at the Ulta Beauty store in Calabasas.

Blanca Alvin, 36, and Andreas Mancilla, 21, were taken into custody Sept. 5 after deputies recovered $3,000 worth of merchandise from the Calabasas Road store that was in their possession. The suspects also had 107 pieces of new clothing with tags from Marshalls department store, a police report said.

Following the incident, the Lost Hills Detective Bureau conducted a Sept. 22 search warrant at the Van Nuys residence of 50-year-old Andrea Morales, Mancilla’s mother. Morales was arrested for receiving stolen property. During the search warrant officers retrieved more than $8,000 worth of stolen merchandise from Ulta and Marshalls.

Thieves have targeted multiple Ulta store locations in Southern California in recent years. The company’s inventory includes beauty tools, cosmetics, nail products, fragrances, and hair, bath and body products that are often resold on the black market.

RICHARD GILLARD/Acorn Newspapers

RICHARD GILLARD/Acorn Newspapers

“When something like does happen typically it’s more like a run-in and run-out,” said one Ulta store manager who asked not to be identified.

“If we try to get in their way that could potentially escalate things. Our company believes in safety first,” the store manager told The Acorn.

Their policy is for employees not to apprehend anybody if they are stealing. They are very restricted in what they can do,” said Detective Angela Lopez, who headed up the Lost Hills investigating team.

Ulta is a victim of what’s known in law enforcement circles as organized retail crime. Underlings are often paid by leaders in a gang to commit the robbery.

“These South American theft crew use low-level boosters who sell to a higher-ups and receive money,” Lopez said.

Three Ulta stores including one in Monrovia were hit on Sept. 4, the day before the Calabasas robbery, the detective said.

There have been at least five reported five robberies at the Calabasas Ulta so far this year. The store at 23741 Calabasas Road was hit Aug. 12 and in that incident a thief took 27 bottles of cologne worth almost $2,900.

In a 2020 robbery about $1,500 worth of merchandise was taken. There were four thefts in 2019, including two that cost the company a combined $4,000.

Police said separate suspects were apprehended July 22 on charges they robbed the Ulta Beauty store in Seal Beach.

The publicly traded company (Nasdaq: ULTA) is based in Bolingbrook, Illinois.