Irvington junior gets video of prep book thief

By Rohit Dilip | Staff Writer

Police apprehended a woman involved in an ongoing investigation regarding various package thefts on April 7th, largely due to video captured when the woman attempted to steal from Irvington High junior Michelle Hsueh.

After arriving home from school on Friday, April 4th, Michelle noticed that the front gate was left open. Her dad called to inform her that their surveillance cameras had captured footage of a woman stealing an Amazon package containing two SAT II Physics prep books five minutes prior. After searching the area, however, Michelle could find no trace of the thief.

“My dad notified the Fremont police and posted the video from our surveillance cameras onto Youtube so people could help us identify her,” explained Michelle. The video was shared multiple times, and had soon been exhibited on several local news stations. Michelle was surprised but grateful at the enthusiastic response.

“I thought people would just laugh at my situation, but so many of my friends shared the video on Facebook,” said Michelle. “There were all sorts of comments, and people seemed to be disgusted, concerned, or just purely entertained by the video.”

Due to the amount of publicity the video garnered, local residents were able to identify the woman, leading to her arrest. She was part of a loosely organized group of individuals that would steal packages and sell the contents. Michelle’s physics books were sold to Half Price Books, but police have since retrieved and returned them. Michelle’s family will not be pressing charges provided the woman refrains from stealing in future.

“I received so many supportive messages from friends and classmates who wanted to help me,” said Michelle. “I’m glad that we were able to encourage others to be more watchful of their neighborhoods.”