I know everyone is sick of Hollywood forcing remakes, but it looks like a creative mind in Southern California decided to reboot The Bling Ring but with a mommy-centric twist. California mother and attempted influencer Michelle Mack is currently awaiting sentencing in July 2024 for being the mastermind behind a theft ring that California and Federal authorities have linked to millions in sales of stolen cosmetics. Okay, okay, so she clearly took it a bit far, but… at least moms are having hobbies again? Unfortunately, this hobby resulted in 140 counts of felony charges.
Being a mom sure ain’t easy. After reading up on Michelle Mack’s alleged crimes as convicted by the state, I have to say: this mama bear pulled off a criminally impressive feat (until she got caught) that all my girls who are obsessed with girl bosses and weirdo MLMs (yes, if you have to sell shampoo like your life depends on it via Instagram story, I think you’re a lil weird) are probably going to want to hear about. Here’s a perfect breakdown of the wild Michelle Mack momfluencer theft ring scandal to rile up your group chat.
What did Momfluencer theft ring leader Michelle Mack do?
According to police records reported by Elle, between September 2021 and the fall of 2023, an organized shoplifting theft ring carried out 230 thefts at Ulta retail locations around the country. That led to deftly tossing thousands of high-end cosmetics in the bag, including top brands like Tarte, Nars, Lancome, and every “holy grail” product your favorite influencer uses in their daily GRWMs. Sunglasses and designer purses also made the cut.
Investigators discovered these products were being resold on Mack’s Amazon shop, the “Online MakeUp Store” (I’d say she kind of phoned it in with the shop name, but her creative mind was clearly being used elsewhere). According to forensic accounting by the police, Mack’s reselling scheme brought in over eight million dollars in revenue, as reported by Elle.
Obviously, Michelle could not pull off all of this alone. She allegedly had the help of her husband Kenneth Mack (okay, supportive hubby) and a crew of ladies they referred to as the “California Girls” because while the thefts were coast-to-coast excursions, most of the action took place in sunny California. Authorities state they still aren’t totally clear when the ring started exactly, but police do allege the California Girls had enough time to carry out as many as 95 thefts from CA to the East Coast.
In addition to working as Michelle’s BOTG, the California Girls supposedly helped their ring leader recruit more members to grow their organization constantly. For all of their hard work (yes, stealing is wrong, but you can’t say it’s not hard), they were rewarded with plenty of cash. Police traced one California Girl’s payout for a month’s work over Apple Pay to be 57K.
The group’s theft was discovered when police got a more extensive search warrant after finding stolen goods in one of the suspected California Girl’s cars after getting pulled over. This warrant uncovered detailed plans in various texting chat apps, which they used to confirm the stolen items were those listed in the Amazon shop.
Who is Michelle Mack?
Michelle Mack is a 53-year-old mother of three who lived in the wealthy neighborhood of Bonsall, California, outside of San Diego (which, fun fact, was ranked as the number one most expensive place to live in the country as of 2023). Michelle never quite reached the heights of being a successful influencer (hold for “awws”), but she did partake in plenty of girlbossery before getting accused by the California Attorney General’s office of starting an intricate theft thing,
Mack’s entrepreneurial spirit, shall we say, started in Arizona. She owned a jewelry company called Facets for Divas back in 2003 and later launched an e-commerce shop for bedazzled glass nail files made in Eastern Europe called 95 & Sunny. Eventually, she opened her Amazon store and moved to California, where she and Kenneth lived large in a 2.75 million dollar Tuscan-style mansion. Michelle’s besties and colleagues (not the ones who got arrested) told Elle that Michelle was superficial, image-focused, and her mood could be “hot and cold.” At one point, she allegedly drove a yellow Hummer, which, while extremely obnoxious, was my exact dream car as a child, so I get it. To be fair, Michelle’s friends also told Elle that she was a generous, loving mother and that they were shocked to see her in handcuffs on the evening news. Women contain multitudes.
While her husband, Kenneth Mack, has been sentenced to five years and four months in prison, Michelle’s sentence remains TBD, though Michelle already accepted a guilty plea agreement. The court has also ordered her to stay away from Sephora and Ulta. TBH, a lot of you need to hear that.
