Overview

Indian Woman Jimisha Avlani Stealing From Target for 7 Hours refers to a July 2025 story about a female Indian citizen staying in the U.S. allegedly shoplifting in a McHenry County, Illinois Target location for seven hours in May 2025. YouTuber Body Cam Edition largely publicized the story in July 2025, when the channel released a compilation of police bodycam footage, documenting her arrest. In the video, the woman gave the name "Anaya" and a clipboard held by the officers read "Anaya Avlani." McHenry County court documents instead stated that the woman's name was Jimisha Avlani and she had been charged with alleged retail theft of more than $300 worth of merchandise. Viral videos and clips of her arrest spread online on sites like Twitter / X, Reddit and TikTok, among others. The story of her alleged crimes received memes, reactions and other viral posts in the following days. The story also received national and international news coverage, especially in India.

Background

On July 13th, 2025, YouTuber^[1] Body Cam Edition posted a video called "She Spent 7 Hours in Target to Steal THOUSANDS in Merchandise," which compiled and narrated body camera footage of an Indian woman being arrested in an Illinois Target on May 1st, 2025.

The video's description read, "Police were called to Target after a woman spent hours inside the store stealing items, ultimately attempting to walk out with thousands of dollars in unpaid merchandise. This is footage of the events that followed." Over four days, the video received over 1.2 million views (shown below).

According to the footage, the woman's name was Anaya, with the last name appearing to be "Avlani" on the clipboard held by one of the officers.^[2][4] The store employee speaking with the police told them that Anaya had allegedly been in the store for about seven hours and had been putting merchandise into large shopping bags. When she stepped into the vestibule, the store's loss prevention stopped her and brought her into the backroom, where she later met police.^[1]

According to the McHenry County, Illinois Circuit Court Clerk database,^[5] Avlani was named Jimisha Avlani, and she was charged with retail theft of more than $300 worth of merchandise. She initially appeared in court on May 2nd. She met in front of a grand jury on June 26th, 2025. She pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Online Reactions

Body Cam Edition's video was reposted across social media in the following days of mid-July 2025 as it went viral.

For instance, clips from it were reposted to TikTok, like one shared by TikToker^[3] @affifi46 on July 14th, 2024, showing Anaya talking about her passport not being on her person. Over three days, the video received over 222,800 likes (shown below).

On July 15th, TikToker^[9] @harpreetkaur6291 posted a video of herself with the caption, "When racism towards Indians is already at an all time high and that lady decides to spend 7 hours in Target to steal," gaining over 375,800 likes in two days (shown below).

On July 16th, 2025, TikToker^[6] @arospeaks posted a video of him talking about the story with a text caption reading, "Indian lady stealing at Target for 7 hours is crazy," gaining over 263,900 likes in a day (shown below).

On July 16th, X^[7] user @nabilajamal_ tweeted clips from the original video, writing, "Embarrassing much!" The tweet received over 2,600 likes (shown below).

Embarrassing much! 🤢

Indian woman Anaya Avlani visiting the US is facing felony charges for allegedly shoplifting $1,300 (Rs1,11,617) worth of goods from a Target store in Illinois

She spent nearly 7 hours inside the store, wandering through aisles, glued to her phone before… pic.twitter.com/2SfTtjkjhH

— Nabila Jamal (@nabilajamal_) July 16, 2025

Also on July 16th, 2025, Redditor Historical_Grape_279 shared the original YouTube video to the /r/india^[8] subreddit, gaining over 1,100 upvotes in a day.

Various Reactions

Search Interest

External References