Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - The Multi Million Dollar Stolen Makeup Operation - The Michelle Mack story

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

​Michelle Mack, a 54-year-old woman from Bonsall, California, was sentenced to five years and four months in state prison in January 2025 for orchestrating a nationwide retail theft ring that stole approximately $7.8 million in beauty products from retailers like Ulta and Sephora. ​Operating from her luxury estate, Mack recruited over a dozen young women to shoplift high-demand cosmetics from stores across 21 California counties and other states.

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So this insane woman becomes a multi-millionaire by shoplifting makeup. Now, her name is Mac, and Mac is around 41 years old. She's a mom living in Arizona, and she runs a bunch of online stores, like buying cheap items and then reselling them on Amazon, that kind of stuff. And then one day in 2012, she starts an Amazon storefront that resells high-end makeup brands like Lancombe and Nars and Tartay, or how are the fuck you say it.

And she, like, stores the inventory. at her house and she packs it up and she ships it out and she does the whole thing. But at some point, Mack gets an idea. She can make way more money if she steals the makeup from the store and then resells it online. So allegedly, that's what she does. She goes to the store, steals the makeup, and then puts it in her Amazon store to sell. And as you could guess, her online makeup business becomes her most successful business venture in her life. Because, you know, it's 100% profit.

However, I guess this little bit of money isn't satisfying for Mac. And she's like, nah, not good enough. And she wants to make more. So at some point, she comes up with a plan to get even more stolen makeup at a quicker rate. She's going to have teams of people go out and steal it. And that's exactly what she does. She somehow gets these shady young women all in their 20s to each go out to different makeup stores and they steal a bunch of shit, they give it to Mac, Mac pays them for their services,

and then she resells it on Amazon. And let me tell you, it is absurd how well this scheme works. She's suddenly pulling in a lot of money. In fact, she's making so much money that in 2018, she and her family move from Arizona all the way to California. And there, she buys a $1.3 million dollar house. So her Amazon store must be doing pretty well. But even still, Mac is like, nah, not good enough. And she wants to make more. So in California, she decides to level up her game. And at this point, her husband is involved in all this. And his name is Kenneth. So Mac and Kenneth, they decide to expand this operation. And I don't know how they find them, but they somehow find a bunch more shady young women all in their 20s, all with long-ass criminal records to be a part of

this scheme. And Mack starts calling them the California girls. So that's what we'll call them. And so Mac makes sure the California girls are skilled enough for the job. And she'll message them on Facebook or WhatsApp or another app where they can text and she'll send them all the instructions to steal from these stores. And she'll also send them like long shopping lists of merchandise to get. So then the California girls will separately go to Ulta or Sephora or wherever Mac tells them to go. And of course, they're not a normal customer. They're low-key stuffing their purses with makeup and brushes and all kinds of stuff. And the whole time, Mac is like texting them, asking them for updates, making sure they get every single item from her list.

And she actually ends up being kind of a hard ass of a boss. But it must be a pretty tight operation because these girls do. don't get caught. So Mac keep sending them out again and again and again. And business is looking pretty good. In fact, it's looking so good that Mac asked the girls to start recruiting their criminal friends to help them, like it's a freaking MLM. And they do.

So eventually there are like a dozen California girls all stealing for Mac's operation. But even still, Mac is like, nah, La la la la. And she wants more. And so she instructs the girls to steal more than makeup. And she starts sending them to lens crafters and other stores to steal like sunglasses. And she makes them start stealing purses. And she resells all of that on Amazon too.

And that does really well. However, it's still not as well as Mac would like because she's still like. And she decides to expand outside. of the state of California and go national. And so she starts sending the California girls to retail stores in different states across the country. That way they're not hitting up the same stores over and over again. And she'll send them money for flights to the East Coast and she'll pay for their rental

car, she'll pay for their hotel, and each of the girls will fly to a new city, head to a store and steal some makeup and more shit. And then they'll give it to Mac and she'll sell it on Amazon for a profit. And this is actually a picture of a bunch of the stolen makeup that Mac has stored at her house. I guess she keeps all of the inventory there. And if you're like, Ray, why would these young women risk getting caught and being thrown in jail over this? Because they're actually making a shitload of money. To Max's credit, she actually pays her employees pretty well.

At least one girl is making around $57,000 a month. A freaking month. While Mac is, of course, killing it too. Like in one year alone, she and Kenneth make $1.8 million. $1.8 million from stealing makeup. In fact, Mac and Kenneth are making so much money that they decide that their current house is not so they move. Not too far away, but in 2021, they move to a much bigger house because they're like bawling now. And I actually like looking at criminals' houses, so let me be a real.

real estate agent really quick and show you this big ass house they got this is a 4,500 square feet luxury home it's got a pool and a hot tub it's got a winery it's got a really nice staircase it's got a breakfast nook you can hold weddings here which mac actually does at one point it's got a whole ass orchard there's even a little separate building where they have a chapel so it's got a little church on this property which is the perfect place to worship after you've committed a bunch of retail theft. So anyway, Mac's operation keeps going for more than 10 years, while Mac herself has managed to make almost $8 million flipping all of this stolen product on Amazon. And so the empire she's built?

I mean, it looks like it's untouchable. Until. Okay, so here's the thing about these makeup and retail stores. These stores often know when things come up missing, like they're not idiots. And while they may not catch the person during the act, they will sometimes still report the theft to police. And they'll sometimes hand over any surveillance footage they have. So at some point, the California Highway Patrol and Homeland Security, they get word of some of these thefts. And they start investigating and looking at some of this surveillance footage.

And of course, on some of this footage, they can see the California girls doing their thing. and eventually they're successfully able to identify two of them. And then one day in 2023, the two California girls hit up an Ulta to steal a bunch of stuff and they're walking out of the store with their purses all full of makeup that they didn't pay for and that is when police swoop in and bam, they arrest them. Then police get a warrant to search one of the girls' phones. And in that phone, they find all those messages that Mac sent this California. You know the ones with the very detailed instructions on how to steal and the lists of items to steal.

And so, bam, they arrest Mack. And I don't have a mugshot, but here's a picture of her getting arrested in real life. Also, bam, they arrest her husband, Kenneth. Here's a picture of him getting arrested in real life. And both Mack and Kenneth, they take a plea deal and he gets sentenced to five years in prison, while she also gets sentenced to five years in prison. And they're both ordered to sell their big-ass new house to pay restitution to Sephora and Ulta. And the California girls, I don't know what happened to them.

I couldn't find anything on them, but I assume they flipped and got off light.