MEMPHIS, TN - (WMC-TV) – Action News 5 has learned new details in connection with a West Tennessee burglary ring. Three suspects, called the "Pantyhose Bandits" are suspected of targeting stores from Memphis to Brownsville.
The three Memphians are behind bars in Brownsville charged with shoplifting. Police believe they have been doing it for quite some time using in some cases panty hose to pull off the thefts.
"I'm very shocked, I'm very shocked. Why? Because it's just terrible for a little town like this," resident Demetrus Springfield said.
But the little town of Brownsville is where this trio from Memphis got caught.
"We got a statement from one of them that they had left Memphis about 9 that morning and headed up highway 51 and were hitting all the Dollar General and Family Dollar stores," Brownsville Police Lt. Chuck Willis said.
Willis says an alert clerk at this Dollar General spotted one of the suspects shoplifting and called police.
Investigators say suspect Santana Paige had items from the store stuffed in his pants when he came out of the store.
Brownsville police say Santana Paige was wearing pantyhose under some baggy pants. They say he had stolen items stuffed in the panty hose.
Police say the two women with Paige, Romastine Livingston and Owanda Tunstall were waiting in a car down the street parked at a Walgreens. Police found $1,500 worth of stolen items in trash bags in the car; detergent, men's deodorant, dishwashing liquid, t-shirts and more.
Lt. Willis says it is not clear how many stores were hit on 51 because many did not know it even happened.
Brownsville police are not sure if the stolen merchandise was sold in the past or what the crooks were doing with it. All three suspects are being held on $3,500 bonds.
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