A TikTok influencer was arrested Wednesday for stealing around $500 from a Florida Target last month, police said. 

The Cape Coral Police Department said officers responded to the store at 1890 NE Pine Island Road in Cape Coral. 

Employees told officers that a woman entered the store on Oct. 30, 2024 and grabbed multiple items that were on sale. 

At the self-checkout register, the woman did not scan the items’ barcodes but instead scanned a false barcode with cheaper prices, police said in a press release. 

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There were 16 items of miscellaneous household goods and clothing that were stolen, valued at just over $500. 

The Cape Coral Police Department posted the suspect’s photo on its Facebook and Instagram page to assist with identification. 

Police said the suspect posted a video wearing the same outfit as seen in security footage.  (Cape Coral Police Department)

An anonymous caller saw the post and gave the suspect’s possible identification as 22-year-old Marlena Velez, a TikTok influencer with nearly 300,000 followers. 

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Officers found Velez’s account, which included a video of her wearing the same outfit and glasses as the suspect seen on Target’s video cameras. The video showed her picking out items inside Target and placing them in her car after exiting the store on the same day as the reported theft.

The suspect posted a TikTok video showing her putting away the stolen items from Target.  (Cape Coral Police Department)

Cape Coral Police concluded that Velez was the same suspect Target accused of stealing items on Oct. 30. Officers located Velez and took her to the Lee County Jail on one count of petit theft. 

When the Florida Panthers take the ice at Amerant Bank Arena on Wednesday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs, they’ll be aiming to score more than just goals. 

They’re also seeking to cross-check food insecurity in South Florida.

The defending Stanley Cup champions have partnered with a Florida-based health insurance company and an area nonprofit to help feed hungry residents in the region. Billed as “Goals for Food,” the partnership between the NHL team and Florida Blue contributes 650 meals for every goal scored by a Panthers player at home during the regular season.

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Harvest Drive, a South Florida nonprofit based in the county where the Panthers play, coordinates the distribution of meals in the community.

“There’s just no words to tell you how great it’s been going,” Harvest Drive founder Renee Herman told Fox News Digital. “It’s just amazing.”

The Panthers have been partners with Harvest Drive for years, but they only began tying their performance on the ice to food donations last season during the team’s run to its first-ever Stanley Cup crown.

The Panthers scored 168 goals at home during the 2023-24 season – amounting to 109,200 meals – and have totaled 40 so far this season. That’s 26,000 meals and counting.

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Last week was Harvest Drive’s busiest of the year. Volunteers from Harvest Drive and the Panthers served about 2,400 families ahead of Thanksgiving.

Families referred to Harvest Drive by school social workers and other agencies don’t just receive a turkey, Herman said.

“They get full perishables” — including milk and pie, plus a $30 Walmart gift card, she added.

A volunteer wearing a shirt celebrating the Panthers’ Stanley Cup win is seen sorting collected food as part of the “Goals for Food” program. (Florida Panthers)

It’s “everything that you need to complete your dinner,” Herman said.

“So, it’s not just getting a turkey and they leave,” she continued. “They get everything.”

‘Hunger is a 12-month thing’

Although there is increased awareness of food insecurity during the holidays, the Panthers wanted to do something that was sustainable throughout the year. 

Hence, the Goals for Food program.

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“The reality is hunger is a 12-month thing,” John Colombo, vice president of the Florida Panthers Foundation, told Fox News Digital.

Aside from the goals program, the Panthers hosted a food packing and distribution event in August coordinated by Harvest Drive. Volunteers collected 22,000 pounds of food to benefit 1,000 families.

The team also hosted a food drive for fans to donate non-perishable items before its Nov. 7 home game – a 6-2 victory over the Nashville Predators. The Panthers’ six goals were the most scored at Amerant Bank Arena this season — resulting in 3,900 donated meals.

The Panthers scored a season-high six goals at home against the Predators on Nov. 7, resulting in 3,900 donated meals. (Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)

Why 650 per goal? It was a number that the Panthers, Florida Blue and Harvest Drive believed would make a difference.

“That’s a lot of meals for one single goal,” Colombo said.

“We can’t control wins and losses on the ice, but we can control how we partner in the community.”

The Panthers, Colombo said, are “really lucky” to be able to work with Harvest Drive because of its direct link to South Florida schools.

“These kids, every two weeks, go home with meals in their car when they get picked up from school,” Colombo said.

He said the food goes “right from our donors, right into the hands of social workers that are going right into the cars of these kids [who] really need the food.”

A “Goals for Food” volunteer loads bags of food into the back of a vehicle.  (Florida Panthers)

Other NHL organizations have been doing their part to help feed the hungry this Thanksgiving. 

Players from the Carolina Hurricanes and Nashville Predators recently distributed turkeys to local families in need — while the Buffalo Sabres provided vouchers for future game tickets in exchange for turkey donations during an area food drive.

“We’re selling hockey in the middle of the Everglades,” Colombo said, recognizing that the team is “a little different” from some of its peers in the NHL. That starts in the community, he suggested.

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“We can’t control wins and losses on the ice, but we can control how we are as a partner in the community,” Colombo said. 

“And I think that’s always been our goal here.”

Authorities arrested two members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua in Tennessee last week, when officials issued a warning about a resurgence of the gang in the state.

On Nov. 19, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officials arrested Luis Alejandro Ruiz-Godoy, who was wanted on outstanding warrants through INTERPOL, a spokesperson with the Memphis Police Department said.

ICE transported the suspect to Louisiana for deportation. Additional details about his arrest were not available.

On Monday, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) officials announced the arrests of four individuals, including one Tren de Aragua member, during a sex trafficking sting last week.

VENEZUELAN GANG’S HUMAN TRAFFICKING OPERATIONS SURGE IN TENNESSEE’S MAJOR CITIES

Tennessee’s Human Trafficking Task Force obtained information that led them to a hotel in Hamilton County, where law enforcement encountered the four suspects and confirmed that they were part of a human sex trafficking operation.

Three female suspects – Wilimar Herrera Guedez, 29; Rebeca De Los Juarez Lucena, 26; and Yidalbris Marcano Salas, 29 – are charged with prostitution. Salas is also facing multiple counts of drug-related charges, as well as one count of unlawful weapons possession.

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The male suspect, Adelvis Rodriguez-Carmona, 30, is facing one count of patronizing prostitution, multiple counts of drug-related charges, and one count of unlawful weapons possession. TBI investigators determined that Rodriguez-Carmona is “a known member of Tren de Aragua (TDA) who is additionally suspected of committing violent crimes in Chicago and New York City.”

“This is part of an active and ongoing investigation and there is no information available at this time,”  Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Nashville Public Affairs Officer Mike Meares said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Four suspects, including a Tren de Aragua member, have been arrested in Hamilton County, Tennessee, in a sex-trafficking sting. (Hamilton County/ Valerie Schremp Hahn/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Tribune News Service)

At the time of the release, he remained in the custody of the Hamilton County Jail on $125,000 bond.

The arrests came the same week TBI officials issued a warning about the growing number of TDA members in the state.

“This gang has exploited [the border],” TBI Director David Rausch on “Fox & Friends” on Nov. 22. “They go from human trafficking to organized retail crime theft, and then they move into the drug trade, taking on the cartels in very violent, bloody battles that they’ve had.” 

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Rausch said the gang has been running human trafficking operations and expanding into other criminal activities in Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga. Law enforcement is limited in their efforts to crack down on gang-related activity, especially if suspects do not have an immigration “detainer,” the TBI director added.

“If we come upon them and they have a detainer on them, then we can take them into custody. But other than that, then all we can do is monitor and assure that they aren’t violating the law. But that is a challenge,” said Rausch, calling it a game of “cat and mouse” that’s getting more dangerous.

Rausch warned Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee during a budget hearing about the resurgence of the gang in major Tennessee cities. 

The Department of Homeland Security recommended last month that more than 100 migrants that it has identified as having possible ties to a bloodthirsty Venezuelan gang be put on an FBI watchlist, after the agency flagged more than 600 with possible ties overall.

Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.