Brazen NJ bride steals $5,000 dress

FANWOOD, N.J. (NBC/EBU) - A brazen theft in New Jersey is caught on tape.

A woman, along with friends and her young daughter, stole an expensive wedding dress.

What the criminal didn't know is the whole incident was caught on tape.

Pass her on the sidewalk and she looks like a regular bride. Casually walking down the street with her new wedding gown. But police said the women in surveillance video is a criminal and that the wedding dress she is carrying is stolen.

“She grabbed the gown, opened the door and made a right turn,” said boutique owner Sahn Troung.

The owner of the Seng Couture shop in Fanwood described how the dress was stolen from his store more than a week ago. He said the woman came into the store with a large group of friends, who were all in on it.

“We put them in the fitting room to try on,” said boutique owner Chamroen Seng. “They had a kid. They had a teenager try on, to distract us.”

She even had her kid involved.

“The kid asked my wife to go buy pizza and go buy drink and we said, ‘This is a boutique store; this is not a restaurant,’” said Troung. “Six of them were back there and blocked my wife.”

A camera at the back of the store shows her walking away again, paying no mind to the little girl who is falling way behind in the parking lot. That, police said, might be the most disturbing part.

“I guess she was more worried about stealing the dress than watching out for the child or whoever the child was,” said Fanwood Police Chief Richard Trigo.

The store owner said the dress is valued at $5,000.

So far, no one has come forward to identify the woman or her accomplices.