Video from Mexico falsely linked to Indian woman’s US shoplifting incident

This viral video is from Mexico, and the lady in the video is not Ananya Avlani either.

An Indian woman was arrested at a Target store in Illinois for allegedly trying to shoplift items worth nearly $1,000 (around ₹1.1 lakh). Her suspicious behaviour led store staff to call the police. In this context, a video showing a woman in handcuffs for shoplifting has gone viral on social media with the claim that it shows an Indian woman being arrested in America for shoplifting.

In the viral video a security guard exposes woman pretended to be pregnant by stuffing stolen clothes beneath her dress. The video is viral with a caption in Hindi that translates to, “Indian-origin Ananya Alwani brought shame to India in America. She stuffed clothes worth over one lakh rupees under her top. Ananya, alias Jimisha, had gone to America to meet her family members. CCTV footage showed employees spotting her, and she was chased and caught.”

Let’s check the truth.

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Fact Check- 

We started our investigation by conducting a reverse image search on Google and the results led us to a Mexican news report published on 1 May 2025,  covering the incident. The report states, “The incident occurred at a department store in Mexico last Tuesday. A video shows the moment a girl was arrested. At first glance, it is not clear what is happening or if they were trying to help her because of her pregnancy, until a guard asks for help to stop her… but as she saw herself discovered and cornered, she had no choice but to lift her dress and take out the large loot she had taken from Coppel’s store. 

Moving forward, we also found one YouTube video uploaded on 1 May, 2025, headlined in Spanish, “Woman pretends to be pregnant and is arrested for shoplifting at Plaza Patio.” The viral video can be seen from the timestamp of 1:23 mark of this news report, uploaded by Zocalo, a Mexican media outlet. It states that the incident was from Plaza Patio in Saltillo, Coahuila in Mexico, and that the woman was arrested for shoplifting.

All these evidences confirms that this viral video is from Mexico, and the lady in the video is not Ananya Avlani either.

Meanwhile, we found many reports regarding the recent shoplifting incident in US. The incident, which happened on 1 May, 2025, was originally posted by the YouTube channel Body Cam Edition on 14 July, 2025, with the channel being credited as the source in most news accounts. In the 18-minute video, a woman wearing a blue shirt and white trousers is interrogated in an office. This does not match the viral video, in which the woman is seen on a pavement in broad daylight while wearing a dress. We can hear the woman stating her name as Anaya, later upon questioning, clarifying that her documents record it as Jimisha Avlani. The woman also adds that she is a tourist visiting from India and does not stay in the US. 

Conclusion- 

Fact Crescendo found that the claim made along with the post to be Misleading. This viral video is from Mexico, and the lady in the video is not Ananya Avlani either. The video has nothing to do with the incident described in the claim.