Spring woman sues saying she’s not the Target ‘taco seasoning bandit’

[Elderberry]

Houston Chronicle by  Gabrielle Banks Oct. 24, 2019



Life was on course for Alaina Alejandra Villa until, she says, Target misidentified her as the taco seasoning bandit.

The 31-year-old Spring mother of two could volunteer when she wanted at her children’s school, she’d lined up a new banking job at a credit union and planned an elaborate party for her upcoming nuptials.

But it all unraveled when police tagged her, based on surveillance videos, as the culprit of a crafty shoplifting spree over three days at Target stores in Atascocita and Spring, according to a $1 million federal lawsuit Villa filed Tuesday.

The “Taco seasoning bandit,” as she’s called in court documents, was reportedly caught on video in July 2018 at the self-checkout aisle, palming a 99-cent Knorr spice packet and scanning its bar code repeatedly as she faux-scanned an air purifier ($152.99), a duvet ($89.99), two window valances ($49.98), a dinnerware set ($59.99), a Rocket vacuum ($189.99) and other household items.

The Harris County district attorney charged Villa with misdemeanor theft, saying she matched the image of the woman on the surveillance video in the store and parking lot who walked off with $591 of merchandise in back-to-back visits at the Atascocita and Spring Target stores last summer.

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Spring-woman-sues-saying-she-s-not-the-Target-14558194.php

Are we going to have more and more of this when "Facial Recognition" becomes utilized more and more?

[Wingnut]

She is guilty as hell.  But that is Target's problem.

[Cyber Liberty]

Apparently Target does not weigh the bags as they do in grocery stores.  If you buy a 6oz can of tomato sauce, the weight of the bag has better be close to 6oz plus the weight of the can.

I didn't see anything in the story about the use of facial recognition technology.  I missed it?

[Smokin Joe]

Apparently Target does not weigh the bags as they do in grocery stores.  If you buy a 6oz can of tomato sauce, the weight of the bag has better be close to 6oz plus the weight of the can.

I didn't see anything in the story about the use of facial recognition technology.  I missed it?

Now the really savvy thieves will go and get the weights of the cheap things they want to scan for more expensive ones... And the beat goes on...

[Smokin Joe]

Apparently Target does not weigh the bags as they do in grocery stores.  If you buy a 6oz can of tomato sauce, the weight of the bag has better be close to 6oz plus the weight of the can.

I didn't see anything in the story about the use of facial recognition technology.  I missed it?

Even worse,perhaps, because the appearance of a person is not even as accurate as measured parameters which could conceivably provide Brady Material. I can't say how many times in my travels I have been approached by someone who thought I was someone else, because I "looked just like them", and there were lots of cases of misidentification before the use of fingerprints and DNA to identify people.  Adolf Beck and Ronald Cotton are just two. Someone can look enough like a person on video to be identified as them, but may possess subtle biometric differences the software might catch that people would not (height, interpupilary distance, etc.).

[Elderberry]

Apparently Target does not weigh the bags as they do in grocery stores.  If you buy a 6oz can of tomato sauce, the weight of the bag has better be close to 6oz plus the weight of the can.

I didn't see anything in the story about the use of facial recognition technology.  I missed it?

That was my assumption from this statement:

The Harris County district attorney charged Villa with misdemeanor theft, saying she matched the image of the woman on the surveillance video in the store

[Cyber Liberty]

That was my assumption from this statement:

Doesn't mean facial recognition was used.  Unless the security cam was better than most we see, they probably went by height, weight and clothing. 

The prosecutor saying there's a lack of sufficient evidence, but he still thinks she's guilty, is BS of Muelleresque proportions.  He's trying to preclude a lawsuit for false arrest, and will probably succeed in doing so.