A man and woman are wanted for questioning after investigators say they concealed merchandise inside a baby stroller and walked out of the Indian Land Costco without paying. The Lancaster County Sheriff's Office says the incident happened on July 16, and deputies are now asking the public for help putting names to the faces caught on surveillance images.
The sheriff's office shared photos of the pair in a Facebook post, captioned simply, “Can you help us identify these individuals?” according to the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office. The case has been logged as number 26-57164, and investigators say the merchandise was allegedly hidden inside the stroller before the male suspect left the store without paying.
Investigators also believe the male suspect may hold a Costco membership, though that has not been confirmed. Costco requires an active membership card at checkout and keeps transaction logs tied to those accounts, a system that can let investigators cross-reference customer records with security footage when a suspect is believed to be a member, according to the Post and Courier. Deputies also noted the vehicle connected to the pair has several unique features, though they did not specify what those are.
Stroller Concealment Carries Legal Weight
The detail about the stroller isn't incidental to the investigation. Under South Carolina Code § 16-13-120, willfully concealing unpurchased retail goods on a person or inside belongings — including something like a stroller — creates a permissible legal inference that the person intended to take the merchandise without paying, per Justia Law. That statutory inference gives prosecutors a path to establishing intent even without a direct admission from a suspect.
How serious any eventual charges could get depends on the dollar value of what was taken, which remains an open question in this case. South Carolina Code § 16-13-110 draws the line at $2,000: shoplifting merchandise valued at or below that amount is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail and fines up to $1,000, while anything above it becomes felony grand larceny carrying up to five years in prison, according to Justia Law. Costco also retains the option to pursue its own civil suit against the suspects independent of any criminal case, since South Carolina Code § 15-75-20 allows retailers to seek the retail value of unrecovered goods up to $1,500 plus civil penalties up to three times the merchandise price, capped at $500, per the South Carolina Legislature.
Part of a Pattern Along the U.S. 521 Corridor
This is not the first time this summer that Lancaster County deputies have turned to the public for help identifying shoplifting suspects along the busy Indian Land retail strip. In August, the sheriff's office released updated surveillance images tied to a separate, unresolved shoplifting case from July 23 at the Indian Land Walmart Supercenter, situated along the same U.S. 521 corridor, as Hoodline previously reported. It's unclear whether the suspects in that case are connected to the Costco incident.
The Costco warehouse itself opened on October 31, 2025, becoming the eighth Costco location in South Carolina and the first wholesale club to open in Lancaster County. It anchors The Exchange at Indian Land, a 130-acre mixed-use development built by Charlotte-based Crosland Southeast along State Highway 521, the Post and Courier reported. The area's explosive growth has made this kind of big-box retail presence possible in the first place: Lancaster County's population climbed 32.4% over the past decade to roughly 114,300 people in 2025, with much of that growth concentrated in the unincorporated Indian Land area near the North Carolina border, Hoodline has reported.
Because Indian Land is unincorporated and has no municipal police department, the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office, led by elected Sheriff Barry S. Faile, is the sole law enforcement agency covering the area, according to the South Carolina Sheriffs' Association. That means every retail theft call along the rapidly developing U.S. 521 corridor, from Costco to Walmart, falls to the same small pool of deputies and investigators.
How to Submit a Tip
Anyone with information is asked to use the P3 Tips link or contact investigators directly rather than posting names or accusations in the comments of the sheriff's office's social media posts. The public can submit an anonymous tip through P3 Tips at p3tips.com/983 or through Midlands Crime Stoppers at 888-CRIME-SC, or reach the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office directly at (803) 283-3388. The sheriff's office has specifically asked people not to name suspects or level accusations in public comments while the investigation remains open.
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