Police Arrest Woman Accused Of Shoplifting $22,000 From Tulsa Retailers

Tulsa Police arrested a woman accused of stealing at least $22,000 worth of merchandise from beauty and sports stores.

Police said the investigation started more than six months ago and believe there may more arrests and victims to follow.

24-year-old Rilyshia Dyer is in the Tulsa County Jail, a place she's been to several times, according to court records.

Dyer is accused of stealing fragrances and other merchandise from Ulta Beauty and Academy Sports over the last few months. Officers said they arrested Dyer Wednesday after she stole more than $4,000 in items from Ulta Beauty.

Police said getting Dyer off the streets is key to tracking down similar cases.

"And hopefully, the crime rate will reflect that because what I want is the citizens of Tulsa to feel safe, and if there's a larceny occurring somewhere that drives up, we all will end up paying for that as consumers and as taxpayers," said Lt. Billy White with TPD’s street crimes unit.

White said Dyer either passes the stolen items off to other criminals or sells them in different gas station parking lots. He said while Dyer is from Tulsa, she could be getting help from a crew and even crossing state lines for their crimes.

“A lot of times, they operate off of a level of fear, so, ‘If like three of us go in and grab a bunch of merchandise, that one cashier at the front is going to have difficulty trying to stop us," explained White.

White also said this case over the last five months was solved thanks to collaboration with businesses and officers on patrol.

"The store relayed information to us, we relayed that to patrol, and they were able to find the vehicle that was used in the theft yesterday,” said White.

Dyer faces one count of conspiracy to commit a felony, seven counts of larceny from a retailer and eight counts of grand larceny for the most recent arrest.

She also has pending felony larceny cases from late last year that are moving through the court system.

Dyer's criminal history includes misdemeanor embezzlement in 2014, misdemeanor larceny in 2017, drug possession in 2018 and several felony larceny charges in 2016, 2019 and 2020.