Best-dressed honoree charged with shoplifting - Highland Park woman was featured in 2002 'Vogue'

The Dallas Morning News ^ | September 27, 2003 | By JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News

[MeekOneGOP]

Best-dressed honoree charged with shoplifting

Highland Park woman was featured in 2002 'Vogue' profile of Dallas

07:04 AM CDT on Friday, September 26, 2003

By JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News

A Highland Park woman named best dressed by Vogue magazine last year has been arrested on charges of shoplifting nearly $2,000 worth of merchandise from Neiman Marcus at NorthPark Center, police said.

Brooke Stollenwerck Aldridge, 48, was arrested on the evening of Sept. 15 and released from the Dallas County jail just after midnight, jail records show.

She could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Ms. Aldridge, who was named best dressed in Vogue's July 2002 issue profiling Dallas, is the co-chairwoman of Two by Two for AIDS and Art, a major fund-raiser scheduled for October. Money from the event is split between the American Foundation for AIDS Research and the Dallas Museum of Art.

According to a police report, Ms. Aldridge did not pay for a $485 pair of black pants, a $120 Kate Spade wallet and a $1,250 Hermes wallet.

A security officer "personally observed, via [closed-circuit television, Ms. Aldridge] take the ... property and place it in her purse and shopping bag," the report said. Ms. Aldridge "exited the store without paying for the property and was apprehended."

Dallas police charged Ms. Aldridge with theft over $1,500, a state jail felony.

Ms. Aldridge has no previous criminal record, according to the report. She and her husband, Frank M. Aldridge III, 61, own a $1.66 million home in Highland Park, records show.

E-mail jemily@dallasnews.com

---

Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/092603dnmetshoplifting.b1976.html

[rdb3]

Highland Park? Why, I thought that only those who live in West/South Dallas, Pleasant Grove, and Oak Cliff did that sort of thing.

101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.

[dennisw]

she's a babe! sorta.

[MeekOneGOP]

lol ! :O)

[Lockbar]

What a shame! Its too painful for some folks to have to live like the "little people" that work for a living and have to shop at Wal-Mart.

[Redbob]

And her middle name is Stollenwerk?

Stolen Work?

[Redbob]

"...If she is white..."

IF?
A name like Brooke Stollenwerk Aldridge, and you hafta ask if she's white?
LOL!

[LiberationIT]

Indefensible!!! Of course if it had been shoes, that might be ok.

[SevenDaysInMay]

Disclaimer: I do not know this alledged thief.

She was a babe. I know more than a handful of ladies of this certain age living in Highland Park and University Park (slum {8^) of the paired "Park Cities" deep within mo' greater Dallas). Status is critical. Stealing from NM at NORTH PARK was a faux pas. Tea at NM is a thing to do.

The pressure to remain as young as husband's mistresses while losing out in the on-going eye candy contest to their sexed up teenage daughters is overwhelming for many of these ex-debutants.

In some of these social circles, hundreds of thousand$ to million$/year from trust funds sustains the salary/bonus millions earned by husbands.

Some wives bring family money, some men, some both. I know some families who were to heavily into high tech stocks, the "local" American Airlines, before the near crash below $3, and real estate flips. Some women are now a bit short on their shopping budgets.

People act like people. Some are normal and well adjusted and some pop a screw loose. The unlucky get caught and posted on the www.

Our Ms. Brooke has some issues, now in public.

She probably won't be having coffee and shopping luncheons at North Park with her DCC and 500 Club neighbors.

Counseling and a bit of cosmetic surgery and she'll be back strong, with or without a paramour.

[strela]

A trophy wife with a few dents and in desperate need of a good rubdown with Brasso?

[strela]

Man, what IS it with rich white women and shoplifting?

[Southack]

"Highland Park? Why, I thought that only those who live in West/South Dallas, Pleasant Grove, and Oak Cliff did that sort of thing."

Mmm... Oak Cliff. I was there when it was gun shots every night, and now it's been gentrified and renovated. So much for this woman's status in the Tiny Kingdom, though. University and Highland Park elites will no doubt use her name as nothing but fodder for jokes and contempt forever on..to such a degree that she'll be better off mentally doing Time rather than remaining in that neighborhood.

[Fraulein]

I wonder how many times she shoplifted before she got caught?

[WillowyDame]

STOLLENwerk just STOLL!!

anywho, was just making sure!!

[DallasStar]

That just goes to show how wrong you are about those areas that you mentioned. I'm from one of those areas and I know better than to steal. It must be simply awful to have so much money (I read about her two million dollar home) and be so bored that a person would have to get out and steal from their friends in order to have some excitment. The newspaper articles did say that Stanley Marcus and the owner of Hermes were or had been her friends. I hope and pray that I will never stoop so low. The people at Hermes had been quoted as saying that she stole from them many times and they would just call her husband and tell him the prices and he would go down and pay for the items... just like her daddy came to her rescue this time. I can't see how it is right for a man (her husband) who obviously is providing her with all the comforts of life should have to put up with a woman of that character.

[DallasStar]

Hooray. You said it so well.

[B-Chan]

It's going to be so sad when they march her in front of the Junior League and rip off all her rank insignia and decorations.

I've been a Neiman's customer since... well, since my mom bought my baby clothes there back in the '60s, and I gotta wonder: of all the stores to rip off, why Neiman's? Yeah, they cost more, but she knew that going through the door; besides, she wasn't hurting for cash. Revenge can't be the motive: Neiman's is a great store that really takes care of its members — they treat my wife and I like frigging royalty. No way was a Park Cities lady ever treated badly at the NorthPark store!

I guess she must have done it for the thrill. Pathetic. Although I'm from the other side of Central myself (coughlakewoodheightscough), I hate to see the Park Cities shamed by this loser; some of the nicest folks I know hail from HP and UP.

[rdb3]

That just goes to show how wrong you are about those areas that you mentioned. I'm from one of those areas and I know better than to steal.

I know I didn't place it in the post, but I was being sarcastic. Look at post #23 to see that MeeknMing caught my sarcasm and laughed about it.

[MeekOneGOP]

DallasStar
Since Nov 19, 2003

I think (hope) we have a simple case of a Newbie here that didn't recognize your humor ? ...

Am I correct, DallasStar ? ...