Arlington Woman Arrested in Bizarre Handbag Scheme: Report

A Virginia woman has been arrested in connection with a scheme involving handbags from high-end brands like Burberry, Gucci and Fendi, according to a report.

Arlington County Police and Homeland Security agents built a case against Praepitcha Smatsorabudh, alleging that she bought high-end handbags that often cost more than $2,000 each from department stores online, and then headed to stores around the country to make returns to get refunds, according to an ABC News report, quoting court documents.

But she wasn't returning the real bags she bought legitimately, authorities say. Instead, she is accused of buying fake knock-offs from suppliers in China and Hong Kong, and then returning those to the stores in the hopes they wouldn't be able to tell the difference, allowing her to essentially keep the high-end merchandise for free.

Then, she would sell the high-end handbags to people online, either via eBay or Instagram, authorities claim.

It was not a small racket, either: authorities claim she received more than a million dollars in refunds from just one unnamed department store.

Authorities raided her home in Arlington and found 572 handbags, many of which were fake, the report states. Smatsorabudh has been charged with wire fraud, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.