Woman charged with stealing $10,000 in North Face jackets

A woman police say stole more than $10,000 in jackets from the Berkeley North Face Outlet is now facing felony charges, according to court papers.

Police say Ashleigh Hedgepeth and an accomplice went into the North Face Outlet in early February and stole the jackets.

The pair fled in a getaway car driven by a third member of the crew.

The commercial burglary was caught on high-definition video, Berkeley police wrote in charging papers.

Berkeley property crime investigators determined that the getaway car, a white Buick, was a rental linked to Hedgepeth, according to court papers.

North Face security also identified Hedgepeth in a double blind photo lineup, police wrote.

Berkeley police catch prolific North Face retail theft suspect

Maljanae Williams was part of an “organized retail theft crew” in San Francisco known as the Rainbow Crew, according to BPD.

The Berkeley ScannerEmilie Raguso

When Berkeley police began looking for Hedgepeth, they found her in Napa County Jail in connection with the theft of 30 jackets from a Tommy Hilfiger store about a week after the Berkeley North Face theft, police wrote.

Ashleigh Hedgepeth. BPD

Berkeley police detectives got a warrant to arrest her.

On March 28, Hedgepeth was transferred from jail in Napa to the Berkeley Jail.

The next day, the Alameda County district attorney's office charged her with grand theft and commercial burglary, both felonies, according to court papers.

Hedgepeth, 29, of Richmond, is no longer in custody, according to booking records.

She is scheduled to enter a plea May 7 at Wiley Manuel Courthouse in Oakland.

Property crime was up in Berkeley last year

Property crime was up about 10% in Berkeley last year, with commercial burglaries alone seeing a 32% increase, according to BPD's annual crime report.

Police have said that commercial burglaries on Fourth Street began to rise after BPD stopped putting officers outside the Apple Store and the North Face Outlet in 2022 — a result of BPD's ongoing staffing crunch, with officer staffing stuck at historic lows in recent years.

The combination of high-end goods and easy freeway access have made the area attractive to thieves.

In addition to the North Face, Sephora, the Apple Store and Lululemon have all been regular targets.

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