Fact Check: Viral video shows Mexican woman, not Indian tourist arrested in US

Mexican woman caught shoplifting in US

An Indian woman was arrested at a Target store in Illinois for allegedly trying to shoplift items worth nearly $1,000 (around ₹1.1 lakh). Her suspicious behavior led store staff to call the police.

At the same time, a video showing a woman in handcuffs for shoplifting has gone viral, but it is not connected to the Illinois case.

A simple fact check reveals that the video actually shows a Mexican woman caught for hiding clothes under her dress and pretending to be pregnant. The woman in the video has been wrongly identified online as Indian tourist Anaya Avalani.

भारत का डंका बच रहा
करवाओ पूरी दुनिया में बेइज्जती करवाओ..

ये अनाया अवलानी है जो अमरीका गईं थीं। एक स्टोर में घुसीं, 7 घंटे शॉपिंग किया, 1300 डॉलर का सामान चुराया

CCTV में इनकी हरकतें कैद हुई, अब हाथों में हथकड़ी, सवाल जवाब के दौर के साथ इन्वेस्टिगेशन चल रही है pic.twitter.com/90BbvR23XC

— A K Bhohariya (@k54176) July 15, 2025

News18 confirmed the woman in the clip is Mexican, not Indian. Many social media users also pointed out in the comments that the video is unrelated to the Indian tourist.

According to an NDTV report, the video falsely linked to the Indian tourist was originally shared by a Mexican news platform named Record on May 1, with the headline: “Woman fakes pregnancy to steal pants and T-shirts from Coppel.”

Additionally, a YouTube channel called ‘EIUniversalMex’ posted the same video on May 5, with the description: “A woman pretended to be pregnant to shoplift clothes, but was caught red-handed. The incident quickly became a trend on social media.”