Chandler Police Searching for Man Believed to Have Stolen More Than $10k Worth of Cosmetics

Chandler is facing a few problems right now. First: Someone is going around stealing makeup from local cosmetics stores. Second: Police suspect it's a middle-aged man.

Chandler police are asking for the public's help in tracking down a man suspected of shoplifting more than $10,000 worth of cosmetics over the last two years. Police call him the "The Blue Basket Bandit."

Police say that in the areas south of Baseline Road, east of 32nd Street, north of Queen Creek Road and west of Country Club Road, the same man, described as a white male between 5'4" and 5'10", with a medium build and brown hair, has changed his appearance, and used different getaway cars as to not raise suspicion among store employees Police say the man would walk into the stores, head right for the cosmetics section, walk around for a while, pick out a blush, and put it in Walgreen's bags he had stashed in his pockets. He would then simply walk out of the store. Not exactly Mission Impossible.

Employees became suspicious after watching numerous surveillance videos, and noticing the man's system.

Umm-- they weren't just immediately suspicious of a man trolling the cosmetics department?

What the man is using the thousands of dollars of makeup for is unknown; let's just hope he's not re-creating the iconic, but repulsive scene from Silence of the Lambs, when "Buffalo Bill" did his little "dance."

If you have any information about the case please contact the Chandler Police at 480-782-4105 or Detective Preston Pierce at 480-782-4335.