On November 23, 2025, at about 7:16 P.M., police responded to the Target store at 3601 Highway 100 in St. Louis Park, Hennepin County, MN for a report of a white female in a blue long sleeve shirt, white down jacket, and black leggings who was concealing Target merchandise on her person and in a brown bag she carried. She was known to Target and identified by police as Taleah Paulette Brown [DOB REDACTED], Defendant herein. Target loss prevention told police that, in the electronics section of the store, Defendant had used a knife to open a box of a pink JLAB wireless party speaker and conceal it in her brown bag, and she had since left the store through the main entrance.
Police arrived and detained her in the parking lot and searched her incident to arrest. The search yielded a purple Smith & Wesson ExtremeOps folding knife with serial number SWA24SP in her front right jacket pocket as well as what Target loss prevention identified as $133.82 of merchandise: 12 Pack of Sharpies ($20.99) U Brand Pens ($19.99) Two (2) Pantene Moisturizer ($1.99 ea.) Essence Mascara ($4.99) Brow Enhance NYX ($11.89) UP & UP Notebooks and Journals ($10) JLAB Party Speaker – Pink ($34.99) Mitns & Glovs Universal Thread ($25) In a post-Miranda interview, Defendant told police that she entered Target with the intent to steal merchandise and that she shoplifted the merchandise.
Loss prevention confirmed the purple knife as the tool used to cut open the JLAB speaker box to more easily conceal the merchandise in her brown bag and aid in the theft.
