Woman steals rugs worth $12,500

SUGAR LAND, TX (KTRK) -- Surveillance cameras helped Sugar Land detectives identify a woman they say scammed a local furniture store out of high-end rugs worth more than $12,000. And investigators say she's done it before.

Police say the woman shown on video dressed in black is the area rug thief who played the old switcheroo game with price tags at a Star Furniture in Sugar Land.

Shopper John Ledkins said, "That's crazy. She should have known better."

People hearing about the alleged hustle are calling the woman bold and brazen.

"It sounds like she knew what she was doing," said shopper Monty Stanford.

Police say the suspected thief switched the tags on high dollar silk rugs with the stickers from the furniture store's less expensive runners.

Sugar Land Police Spokesman Doug Adolph explained, "She paid $200 for a rug valued at $5,000 and left the store."

Police say the woman ended up stealing $12,500 worth of merchandise. After seeing her image on TV Thursday, Star Furniture workers say it appears she had a sudden change of heart.

Late Thursday afternoon, workers at Star Furniture told me they got a call from an anonymous woman who says the person who took those rugs wanted to apologize. They said she was going to drop those rugs off in the back of the store.

And there they were. The stolen expensive rugs were bundled up in garbage bags and the person who returned them was gone.

I'm kind of surprised, but not so much surprised," said Stanford. "Because you always have people wanting to get something for nothing."

Sugar Land police say an HPD officer helped identify the woman seen in the surveillance video and now they are working on an arrest warrant. Officers say the accused area rug thief's been hitting other businesses across Houston.

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