A suspect has been arrested over the brazen theft of wedding gifts worth an estimated $60,000 during reception — along with his accused getaway driver, according to police.
Armean Shirehjini is accused of being the well-dressed wedding crasher caught on security camera snatching a box of envelopes full of cash and checks from the dance floor at the Renaissance Banquet in Glendale, California.
Cops believe he just stumbled across the wedding and decided to crash it — totally ruining Nadeen and George Farahat’s big day.
“I ended up sitting on the dance floor, sobbing with my friends and cousins around me,” the bride told ABC7.
Shirehjini allegedly slipped past security into the 300-person wedding in a black shirt and shoes, then fled the reception hall with the money, according to the Glendale Police Department. He then hopped into a black SUV allegedly driven by Andranik Avetisyan, who was arrested as an accomplice,
Investigators eventually tracked down the pair at Shirehjini’s home, where they recovered a pile of checks and a significant amount of cash.
“Obviously, this person did hit the jackpot,” Sergeant Jose Baraja of the Glendale Police Department said. “We believe they got about $60,000 and a few checks. We did recover 26 checks in total and about $10,000.”
Cops also discovered a trove of drugs and guns at each of their residences.
Surprisingly, neither man has a criminal history and police believe the theft was a crime of opportunity.
“Glendale has a lot of banquet halls, a lot of weddings every single weekend, so we believe that maybe this was just a random location that they decided to pick,” Barajas said.
The couple said they’re ready to move past the incident and start their new life together.
“We had a wonderful ceremony at our church. We had a really fun party with our family and friends, and we were able to celebrate up until the incident,” George Farahat said.
“We’re trying to focus on the fun times, the important things to us, and the fact that we’re married,” he added.
Read the full article here
