Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast
The Multi Million Dollar Stolen Makeup Operation - The Michelle Mack story
Tue, 22 Apr 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.
Chapter 1: Who is Michelle Mack and how did she start her makeup business?
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 Lancome and NARS and Tarte or however the 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, Mac 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 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 Mac 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
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Chapter 2: How did Michelle Mack transition from reselling to stealing makeup?
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, the 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 girl. 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 Mac. 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 Mac 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.
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