WATCH: APD officer charged with shoplifting by switching price tags

Ann Pierret
·6 min read
2

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Shoplifting is a crime the Albuquerque Police Department has dedicated extra resources to over the last several years. APD officers often work overtime and conduct stings at retail stores across the city to crack down on the crime. Now, one of the agency’s own is charged with committing it.

Target’s Loss Prevention Specialist, Ty Hunt, called APD in November 2023 to report the alleged thefts. Lapel camera footage captured by the responding officer and sergeant reveals part of their conversation with the store employee. Hunt pulled up surveillance footage and the officer was heard immediately recognizing fellow officer Vanessa Santillanes on the screen. “That’s her. That’s – that is Santillanes,” he said.

Officer: So, what do you have? Tell us what’s going on.
Loss Prevention Specialist: So she – I caught her, uh, ticket switching through just like reviewing and everything.

Ticket switching, Hunt explained, is when someone takes the price tag off of a cheaper item and puts it on the more expensive one they’re buying. Hunt said he frequently reviews surveillance footage at the Target Store on Coors Boulevard in northwest Albuquerque. And, he explained, he’s tipped off when someone buys plastic cups that cost just 50 cents.

The first time Santillanes did that, Hunt showed the officers, was April 17, 2023. An incident report revealed she saved herself $67.90 with the ticket-switching tactic, not properly paying for lotion or mousse.

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She used the 50-cent cup’s price tag again, Hunt told them, at the same store on June 17, 2023. Hunt shared surveillance footage showing Santillanes leaving Target. He said she swapped price tags on face cleanser, body wash, and deodorant, stealing $22.87 worth of merchandise.

“She also went between here and Paseo,” Hunt told the officers. Through a public records request, KRQE obtained surveillance footage showing Santillanes enter the Target on Paseo del Norte, where Hunt said she made a $200 purchase. But he pointed out, the officer also gave herself a deal on two pairs of shoes. In surveillance footage, Santillanes was seen scanning them at the self-checkout. They cost $27.99 each, but her receipt showed she paid just $10 for each pair because Hunt said she switched the price tags with two pairs of less expensive sandals, stealing $35.98.

Officer: And how’d you get information she was an Albuquerque Police Officer?
Loss Prevention Specialist: So obviously, like I did type in the name on Google and everything… What I kept seeing was patrolman, second class and everything, Albuquerque Police.
Officer: Okay.
Loss Prevention Specialist: So, I assumed maybe she was an officer.

A Google search and the car Santillanes drove to the store in November helped Hunt figure out Santillanes worked for APD, he said. He showed the officers surveillance footage of her driving away from Target on Coors Blvd. in a vehicle with a government license plate on November 25, 2023. This was the final incident before she was caught, according to court records. This time, Hunt captured Santillanes throughout the store, even zooming into her cart where he pointed out he saw nearly $50 of beauty products. But a public records request showed she used the price tags from four items worth $5, $3, and $2.80 when scanning the makeup and face cleanser. Hunt said that allowed Santillanes to steal $32.98.

In total, Hunt told the officers she stole $159.73 from the two Target stores.

“It’s not the most serious case that we have in terms of the dollar amounts involved, but we take it very seriously just because of the, the breach in public trust for, for somebody that serves in that role,” Attorney General Raúl Torrez explained. His Office took the case against the APD Officer to avoid a conflict of interest with the local district attorney.

Special Agent: Okay. Do you want to talk to us or not?
Santillanes: Not Really.
Special Agent: Let me kind of present –
Santillanes: I don’t know what’s going on.

In December 2023, special agents with the New Mexico Department of Justice questioned Santillanes about the four incidents. Lapel camera footage captured her identifying herself in Target’s surveillance footage.

Special Agent: Is that you?
Santillanes: That’s me.
Special Agent: Okay. This one specifically is on, uh, April 30th. And you’re saying that’s you, right?
Santillanes: That looks like me. Yeah.
Special Agent: Okay.

But Santillanes refused to speak to them further about the accusations, telling the agents she’s been a police officer for a decade and ticket switching is not something she would do. “I don’t want to talk about this. I don’t feel comfortable talking about this. I don’t want to get caught up in something that, you know, I didn’t do,” Santillanes said. “This isn’t something that I would do.”

The New Mexico Department of Justice charged Santillanes with four misdemeanor counts of shoplifting. The criminal complaint said she was not on duty during any of the alleged incidents. And, it stated APD assigned the take-home patrol car to Santillanes just weeks before Hunt said he caught her on surveillance driving it away from the Target store in November 2023.

  • Read Criminal Complaint Below:

Torrez added, “This is a, pretty frankly, sad case where you have somebody who has taken an oath to uphold the law who’s been caught and accused of committing criminal violations like this.” Criminal violations his Office has been working with her police department to stop.

A previous KRQE Investigation delved into the Organized Retail Crime Unit, which started under Torrez’s predecessor. It consists of shoplifting stings across the state. Since taking office in January 2022, Torrez said he expanded the Unit to include four full-time investigators. Right now, they have 20 open investigations in six different cities across the state.

While those investigators are typically focused on dismantling groups who shoplift larger ticket items and then illegally sell those, Torrez said they cannot let petty crimes like what Santillanes is accused of go unpunished. He credited detailed work by loss prevention specialists, like Hunt, with helping make sure that happens. “You know, hopefully, we can secure a conviction and get the kind of accountability that everyone in the community expects,” Torrez added.

Santillanes resigned from APD in January. The now-former officer’s certification is under investigation by the Law Enforcement Certification Board. She is due back in court in March. This is Santillanes’s first criminal charge. Her attorney, Brian Pori, shared the following statement about his client’s case:

“This entire incident has been an ordeal for Vanessa.  Not only has it led to the end of her career as a law enforcement officer, she now finds that, despite her ten years of service to the City of Albuquerque, she is being treated more harshly than other, similarly situated defendants charged with the same crime.  She does not seek any special treatment and asks only that she be treated the same as any other person charged with this petty, misdemeanor offense.”

Attorney Brian Pori

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