SUSPECTS are arrested; and the items taken (HBPD).

The organized snatch-and-dash retail robberies that were so prevalent a year or so ago are no longer the low-risk high-reward operation they once seemed to be.

Case in point: a heist at a beauty and cosmetics store in Huntington Beach ended up with four suspects in the Huntington Beach City Jail.

According to the HBPD, the incident took place around 1 p.m. on Thursday at the Ulta store in the Bella Terra shopping center at Edinger Avenue and Beach Boulevard.

Store employees reported to police there were four females in the store concealing items in a bag. The group left without paying and fled in a waiting vehicle.

Patrol officers, the HB1 police helicopter and an aerial drone began to search for the vehicle, which was traveling northbound on Magnolia Street from McFadden Avenue.

A Westminster police officer spotted the vehicle, made a traffic stop, and WPD and HBPD units took the four suspects into custody on multiple felony charges. The “take” of stolen merchandise – estimated to be worth thousands of dollars – was recovered.

During the investigation police found a young child in the vehicle not secured in a car seat. He was taken into protective custody and released to a guardian.

Arrested on charges ranging from organized retail theft, conspiracy to commit a crime, grand theft shoplifting, burglary and willful cruelty to a child were:
• ]Tijera Tranece Carrel, 31, of Long Beach;
• Dajanay Jade Griffin, 31, of Lynwood;
• Victoria Heard, 29, of Lynwood;

• Tiera Franklin, 34, of Compton.