A Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station detective is investigating a theft of nearly $2 million in beauty products from a Castaic business.
In September, the manager of an AMS Fulfillment warehouse reported to an SCV Sheriff’s Station official that nearly $2 million in merchandise from the warehouse had been sold online using social media, according to a record requesting records for a social media account.
A security official with the popular, Los Angeles-based beauty and care product line Salt & Stone learned from an employee that the company’s products were being sold using a TikTok account that reviewed beauty products, per a request for a court order to see the records from the account.
Salt & Stone, which was sold earlier this year to a private equity firm, reported $165 million in annual sales, according to a company release earlier this year. Salt & Stone uses AMS for its specialized services, which are touted on its website as “fulfillment experts in all areas, including back office client services, information technology, engineering, and of course, fulfillment operations.”
Neither location responded to a request for comment as of this story’s publication.
After tracking down the missing pallets, the warehouse employee confirmed that AMS had no business with the alleged recipient of the stolen goods, according to the detective’s affidavit. The warehouse reported that the goods were tracked to a business address in Santa Barbara that had no affiliation with Salt & Stone or AMS.
The Salt & Stone representative confirmed that the total merchandise missing from its inventory came to approximately 54,000 units, which was the estimate from 12 pallets of product.
The social media account, which frequently has online reviews and sales of care industry products, posted an Aug. 8 livestream. A Salt & Stone employee watched and then purchased goods from the suspect account, according to the detective’s report.
The detective indicated in his search that the employee was able to track the SKU, or stock keeping unit, to a lot of products that were still supposed to be at the warehouse after they were delivered to the employee, according to court records.
The detective did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
A Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station official confirmed Wednesday that no arrests have been made in the investigation.
