They were in and out in 15 minutes, showed a security camera, moving with speed and strategy. They ran past the computers and televisions to get to their dressing room. On a shelf, along with dozens of other luxury handbags I’d been collecting since I was a teenager, the Birkins.
“I had only used it once, on my birthday,” said the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of provoking another robbery. The thieves made off with the Birkin, the maximum of the other bags and, tellingly, receipts from a drawer in his home that established the authenticity of many of the wallets. “They were,” he says of the robbers, “like trained assassins. “
She thought the Birkin was gone forever. But months later, she was surprised to find it for sale on a swanky online page aimed at other women who enjoy those bags.
The Birkin, Hermès’ giant leather bag, has long been coveted by celebrities and fashionistas. Today, this bag and other symbols of prestige have objects of obsession for a less glamorous group: thieves. Sophisticated gangs of South American thieves are suspected of being implicated in a series of residential raids across the country in recent years, including the one in Palisades. Gangs are especially clever at turning bags into money and decide their goals accordingly.
“Where houses are worth a lot of money, there are supposed to be high-end handbags,” said LAPD Capt. Francis Boateng.
Thieves are temporarily unloading Birkins and other luxury brands into specialty fencing for thousands of dollars, the Los Angeles Police Department said. They are then sold on valid resale sites, where Hermès enthusiasts buy them at discounted prices, as low as $15,000 a bag.
This is a conduit that successfully transfers bags from the closets of the incredibly wealthy to those of the very wealthy.
The Palisades case, as detailed in court records, police affidavits and interviews, offers a rare window into this practice: The thieves sold the Birkin, valued through the owner at about $37,000, to a woman accused of hiding bags in the parking lot. Reduction grocery store in North Hills. She, in turn, sold it to a high-end resale in Dallas; Redeluxe is owned by a former YouTube pastor and his wife and promises its subtle clientele of Hermès influencers and enthusiasts “a grocery shopping luxury you can trust. “
Redeluxe announced the Palisades bag, or one that looked like it, last month for $25,950, calling it a “dream come true” for Birkin lovers.
After The Times inquired about the bag, the company said through a lawyer that the owners were unaware that the Birkin had been stolen and filed a lawsuit against whoever sold them the bag.
To perceive the black market of Birkins is to perceive the market as valid, although, given its confusing nature, the term “valid” may be a misnomer.
The new Birkins, handmade by French artisans, are sold only in Hermès stores. However, one cannot simply go in and choose one. Existing consumers are contacted through a clerk who “offers” an express bag for sale. Some consumers think they have to buy the Birkin presented to them, even if they don’t like the color or type of leather, or else they may not be able to buy them in the future.
A Hermès spokeswoman responded to messages requesting information about Birkins, or even acknowledging receipt. Interviews with owners and handbag experts, as well as a recent lawsuit, recommend that Birkins be introduced to consumers who spend lavishly on other products year after year.
“There is a formula, or there is no formula. . . [but] like an undisclosed rulebook,” said Michael Amato, a fashion specialist at Julien’s Auctions, which has sold vintage and celebrity-owned handbags.
Sellers who distribute Birkins’ very limited supplies don’t earn a normal commission on their sales, according to a federal class-action lawsuit filed last month through prospective handbag buyers accusing Hermès of antitrust violations. The scheme provides dealers with a monetary incentive to condition Birkins on the purchase of less-sought-after commission-paying pieces such as scarves, shoes, clothing and jewelry, the lawsuit states.
These ancillary purchases are called “Birkin bait” and some consumers feel they have to buy a set amount each year for a bag, according to interviews with owners and experts and online discussions about how to get Hermès bags. It started at around $20,000 and got bigger towards the north.
The difficulty in getting Birkins has only amplified its appeal, as evidenced by a 2001 episode of “Sex and the City” in which Samantha tried unsuccessfully to circumvent a supposed five-year waiting list by claiming that the bag she was looking for was for actress Lucy. Liu. .
The plot highlighted the unofficial role celebrities play in marketing Birkins. Martha Stewart wore a candy-colored Birkin in her insider trading trial in 2004. Lady Gaga graffiti with Japanese characters on a white garment during her 2010 tour. Dua Lipa walked around Paris this spring in a black suit. Jennifer Lopez wore a cream-colored Birkin to the gym last month, and Kim Kardashian wore one as an alligator to a recent Lakers game.
“When you mix exclusive design, celebrity pop culture and a limited amount of bags, it just creates that buzz and interest,” Amato said.
The elusive nature of the bags, as well as the cost of Birkin bait, means that the value does not reflect the actual price. Palisades Birkin officially charges $12,500, however, the owner said it was worth at least 3 times that amount because of the cash. He had to spend beforehand to get it.
The result is that, while other exorbitant, top-selling bags would likely lose price as soon as they leave the store, the price of the Birkins is only increasing.
“If you can buy one for $20,000, you can sell it for $50,000,” said Karla Martin, managing wife of Deloitte Consulting, who has written about Hermès and the luxury resale market.
Demand for second-hand Birkins has been around for a long time, he says, but the proliferation in recent years of new sites, such as Fashionphile, RealReal and Rebag, has made reselling them quick and easy: “What has replaced this total secondary market. “
The break-in at a $3 million Hollywood Hills home in April 2023 had the hallmarks of what police call South American groups of thieves: a target in a luxury building; assets adjacent to a park, in this case, Runyon Canyon; a glass back door in front; and transportation of properly fenced valuables, especially purses, jewellery and other items valued at least $50,000.
The Hollywood Hills robbery solution has been handed over to a joint FBI-Los Angeles police task force that is investigating break-in rings in Chile and other countries. Men and women dressed in the rings travel to the United States on tourist visas, in what the FBI and authorities across the country have described as an explicit target. Many perpetrators have a history of arrests in their home countries and plan to return once they recover the money from their crimes, officials said, distinguishing them from asylum. seekers and others looking to build a new life here.
During the robbery in the Hollywood Hills, a neighbor’s surveillance camera captured an Infiniti pickup truck leaving the neighborhood, the LAPD detective said. Christopher Hookstra wrote in an affidavit of a search warrant. He and other investigators from the task force hooked up the van to an apartment west of the fairgrounds where several Chileans lived. Investigators received permission from a court order to install a GPS tracker on the SUV.
Under the supervision of the task force, the SUV headed on a Sunday to the residential spaces of Palos Verdes Estates and Manhattan Beach. Two robberies were later reported in Palos Verdes and one in Manhattan Beach, in which the robbers fled with purses and jewelry totaling an “approximate loss of $97,000,” according to a Manhattan Beach police report cited in court records.
When four Chileans boarded the Infiniti two days later, detectives were ready. They followed the van into Orange County and surreptitiously observed the men who allegedly broke into apartments in Yorba Linda and Anaheim, according to the LAPD detective’s affidavit. After a third stop, task force detectives summoned Anaheim police and California Highway Patrol units, and three of the men were arrested (two pleaded guilty to trespassing last month; the third is a fugitive).
The fourth man escaped, but about forty-five minutes later, a man burst into the Expo Center building and detectives arrested him. A search of the apartment revealed a semi-automatic handgun stolen from Santa Clarita, a Wi-Fi blocker that could be used to thwart alarm systems, and what police thought were the detritus of burglaries at boys’ homes: watches, necklaces, brooches, cufflinks, sunglasses, Louis Vuitton and Gucci bags, a nose ring and a stained Christian Dior bag, according to a bag. filed with the court.
But no Birkin.
Detectives then searched the Chilean room’s phone and a stolen Hermes global was opened in front of them, they said.
Karla Sunceri gave the impression of having a respectable suburban life. The 52-year-old lived in Granada Hills, on a beautifully renovated ranch across the street from an elementary school. Their front backyard was a display of emerald grass, blooming rose bushes, and young palm trees. His Lexus had a license plate that read “Jesus is Lord” and his son, who lived with him, was being educated by an LAPD officer.
Text messages extracted from the phone of the Chilean detained at the Exhibition Center have led detectives to wonder if Sunceri’s best lifestyle is guaranteed through stolen bags.
The suspect had “sent several photographs of high-end handbags to ‘Karla,’ adding the Hermès and Chanel brands,” the LAPD sergeant said. Stephanie Villatoro wrote in a search warrant affidavit. “‘Karla’ appeared to negotiate the value of the bags with [the suspect] and asked him to check the bags in express spaces to locate identity codes. “
Sunceri gave the guy his deal and when detectives set up a surveillance operation in his neighborhood, they discovered signs that he wasn’t the only one like a fence for his purse. In June, according to the affidavit, a Ford sedan pulled over. They got up and three men took “giant garbage bags out of the trunk, which appeared to contain giant objects, matching the shape and length of the bags” and carried them to their garden.
Detectives connected the Ford to an alleged burglar in Ventura County and a vehicle that turned up in the Sunceri community to men arrested in a series of robberies in Orange County.
LAPD Detectives Sunceri Lexus to the parking lot of a Smart
In one example, an LAPD court order affidavit described that Sunceri had encountered “an unidentified Hispanic man exiting a black sedan with an item that appeared to be a purse. The guy climbed into the front passenger seat of Sunceri’s vehicle for a short period of time and then exited without the object.
The task force asked for a judgment to authorize a search of her home in October, with the LAPD’s Villatoro writing, “Your deponent believes that Karla Sunceri knowingly buys luxury designer handbags received through criminal activities from [South American theft groups] and then resells them. “them. them for profit.
The Palisades woman collapsed to the ground in shock when she first saw her ransacked space. Paranoia followed. As he left the shops, he looked over his shoulder. She stopped dressed in her wedding and engagement rings outside the space. For a while, she wrote down the license plates of the cars she thought were following her.
“They robbed me of my sense of security,” he said.
Her insurance policy covered the price of her husband’s stolen watches, but not her Birkin or other purses. They don’t count as collector’s items, the insurer informed her. As bullion pieces, Birkins are on par with fine wine, watches, or art. However, their creditors are seen as foolish clotheslines.
“Part of it is due to a little bit of sexism on the part of the women collecting those items,” said Deloitte’s Martin, who added that for the uninitiated, designer handbags have “become a symbol of things that you think are on the market. “rich. “
In September, an LAPD detective asked the Palisades burglary victim to take a look at photographs of bags taken with the phones of a new organization of burglary suspects. She identified her dark green Birkin, photographed on a kitchen counter.
Something else also caught her eye: a photo collage of a quilted green Chanel bag with a gold chain strap. The first dimly lit photo taken in what she imagined was the thief’s room. At the time, a screenshot of the same handbag on the luxury resale. Underneath the photographs were two numbers: $5,995 — the retail value on the site — and $3,833.
It seemed that someone was comparing the value charged through the corridor to that of the thieves.
The woman from Palisades had never bought a second-hand handbag, but she clicked on Redeluxe and searched through a huge stock of second-hand Birkins.
“They gave me page four or five,” he recalls. And my Birkin on the list. “
Redeluxe was born in 2019, when the wife of a cash-strapped pastor in Amarillo, Texas, was looking to treat herself to something nice. Georgia Swain pulled a small Louis Vuitton bag from the back of her closet and sold it online for enough money. to buy a new bag.
“I saw an opportunity,” he recalls in an Instagram video explaining the company’s origins. “It was an accident, or just God’s plan in my life. “
Her husband, Hunter Swain, whom she had met at Bible Institute, resigned from his church assignment. He later explained that God called them “to run this business together and create a YouTube channel” for Christians.
As it turns out, the YouTube channel has run out of steam, but the handbag business has thrived. Georgia Swain is the face of Redeluxe, modeling the site’s new bags on TikTok and Instagram with influencer makeup, hairstyle, and lighting and the enthusiasm of a cheerleader. for luxury brands, especially Hermès.
“Yes! Yes,” she exclaimed on TikTok in October, appearing in a hot pink Birkin. He filmed himself opening vendors’ packages, cutting duct tape and torn cardboard to reveal Hermès products.
“Today we won so many oranges,” he exclaimed in an Instagram video.
Redeluxe made $7 million in profits in the first three years, according to an interview Swain gave to a Dallas magazine. Her husband credited “our executive director (the Holy Spirit),” but it turns out the pandemic also played a role. 19 closures have revitalized resale sites, which has affected other people to sell their handbags and store closures have restricted in-person shopping.
They promised to pay the dealers within 48 hours and bought a very good variety of second-hand Birkins. Among them were so-called horseshoe stamps, ultra-rare handbags that top elite consumers – a kind of VIP lounge within the VIP lounge – can design. Traditional handbags can take up to 3 years to deliver, according to auction space Christie’s, which last year sold a traditional matte yellow crocodile-skin Birkin for more than $93,000.
In a video showcasing a recent Hermès tradition, Swain stated how difficult it is to find such a bag, saying, “To get something like this, you have to spend a lot, let’s say a LOT, of money. “
Sunceri, one of Redeluxe’s sources, paid him $121,245 between February and June last year, according to bank documents received through police and cited in a search warrant.
It is not clear who else sold to Redeluxe. The Swains did not respond to questions about their business. His lawyer, Stephen Kennedy, declined an interview request, telling a reporter: “You’re going to take someone who is blameless and make him guilty. ” (The Swain and the Redeluxe were not charged with criminal offenses. )
The site wasn’t Sunceri’s only customer, according to search affidavits alleging that she also sold handbags on the online marketplace Poshmark and other resale sites. One site owner told The Times that Sunceri shipped Birkins in Hermès’ iconic orange boxes, giving him the impression of having their original dust covers in place and accompanied by receipts from the store.
The LAPD detectives were not handbag enthusiasts (Palisades’ wife said they pronounced Hermès “her-meez” instead of French “er-mez”), but they were adept at locating stolen goods and were given a search warrant to obtain communications and communications records from Redeluxe Transactions with Sunceri.
A detective who reviewed the money believed the company’s invoices to Sunceri were “proceeds from the resale of goods known to have been stolen,” according to a court filing.
In the case of the dark green Birkin, the data revealed showed that Redeluxe had purchased it the week after the theft in Palisades. Detectives took the serial number provided through Redeluxe for the bag to a Hermès store, where a worker verified that it was indeed the bag. purchased through the Palisades woman.
Before dawn on Nov. 1, task force detectives, supported by a contingent of other officers, arrived at Sunceri’s home with a search warrant. They confiscated 46 designer handbags, as well as 16 Hermès handbags, as well as $121,031 in cash. In a garage locker in Glendale that he had rented, another $197,100 was discovered stashed next to his son Erick Palencia’s LAPD uniforms, a prosecutor later told a judge.
Detectives said they also intercepted a package Palencia had sent the day before to UPS at a resale site. It contained a Hermes handbag and two Chanel handbags recently reported stolen from a Newport Beach home, according to a search warrant affidavit written through Villatoro of the LAPD.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged Sunceri with 53 counts of receiving stolen property, conspiracy and laundering.
Palencia, 27, charged with conspiracy and receipt of stolen property. A felony complaint alleged that she sent stolen purses and used her bank account to obtain invoices at a resale site. At a bail hearing at the San Fernando courthouse earlier this year, Congress. Dist. Atty. Elizabeth French said Palencia was “a month away from getting his badge” when the LAPD’s internal affairs department “kicked him out of the academy. “
Both mother and son pleaded not guilty. During the bail process, Sunceri claimed that he made a living cleaning houses and earned $1,655 a month, and Palencia claimed that his monthly take-home pay from his jobs at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Griffith Observatory was $2,500.
“I don’t know if I can tell a little bit of truth with those monetary statements,” Superior Court Judge David Stuart said, before setting Sunceri’s bail at $300,000 and Palencia’s at $100,000.
His lawyer declined to comment; His lawyer responded to the messages. Reacting to a letter left on his door, Sunceri called a reporter and shouted, “Don’t come to my house or I’ll pass the police. “
The robberies continue. In the month and a part since Sunceri’s arrest, dozens of huge West Side homes have been attacked, adding a $30 million hilltop estate in Beverly Crest, a $27 million Palisades resort overlooking Santa Catalina Island, a $20 million Beverly Park and a $22 million park. mansion overlooking the Bel-Air Country Club. No it’s clear who’s after the bags, but the Los Angeles Police Department’s Boateng is sure it’s still happening. Sunceri, he said, “wasn’t the one. “
The owners of Redeluxe last year built a 3,800-square-foot lake-view home outside Dallas, according to asset records, and are expecting their first child. In a recent video revealing their gender, the couple opened a box of Hermès and pulled out a pink Birkin.
The Palisades woman still doesn’t have her Birkin. He said detectives told him Redeluxe intended to sell it to her for $19,000, the amount the company paid Sunceri, but the woman said she refused on principle. Redeluxe did not respond to a comment on the offer. The text messages he shared showed an LAPD detective informing him of likely failed attempts to retrieve the bag.
Sometimes I’d see the Birkin I thought of as his own on a shelf at the back of Redeluxe’s videos. Then, in March, the site put the bag up for sale and Georgia Swain told prospective buyers on Instagram, “It looks so good, guys!I love it. “
After the Times inquired about the bag, the list was removed and Redeluxe’s lawyer told the newspaper this week that the company “is in the process of moving the bag” to Los Angeles, where it could be used as evidence in the offender’s case. On Monday, she filed a fraud complaint against Sunceri in Dallas, accusing her of “material misrepresentation, meaning that she had lawfully received a second-hand luxury handbag. “
On a recent afternoon, the Palisades wife took some of her remaining Birkins to a meeting with a reporter. She carried them in the kind of undeniable handbags you use to run errands.
“I no longer need to be the user who walks into the room with the flashy object,” he said. “I have a completely different perspective. “
Times editors Brittny Mejia and Libor Jany contributed to this report.
Subscribe to accessSite Map
Follow
MORE FROM THE L. A. TIMES