Panty Raid anyone?

Panty Raid Costs Victoria's Secret $5,000

.c The Associated Press

BELLEVUE, Wash. (AP) - Call it a $5,000 panty raid. That's the estimated value of 300 sets of skivvies taken from a Victoria's Secret store.

``It's very unusual. It's shoplifting to the max,'' said Marcia Harnden, a police spokeswoman in this suburb east of Seattle.

An employee noticed the panties in a variety of colors, styles and sizes were missing shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday, Harnden said. Each cost $15 to $28.

Two display tables at the front of the store were cleared of the frilly, silky merchandise, and two other tables, one next to the cash register, were half-emptied, she said.

A store manager would not discuss the theft. Phone messages were left Tuesday at corporate headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.

Police don't think it was an inside job. ``All the employees were busy'' with customers, and no one noticed any suspicious shoppers, Harnden said.

``It's probably a crime of opportunity,'' Harnden said. ``There's any range of possibilities - we could have a pervert doing it ... (for) sexual gratification, it could be somebody who'd take (the underwear) to a flea market to sell it there or it could be for someone's personal use.''

Police may check flea markets and online auction sites such as eBay, Harnden said, ``but if I were the consumer, I'd be very leery about buying undergarments from a disreputable source.''