{"id":189207,"date":"2026-03-12T21:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T21:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/189207\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T21:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T21:02:08","slug":"reality-tv-couple-arrested-in-publix-scheme-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/189207\/","title":{"rendered":"Reality TV couple arrested in Publix scheme in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Petrus<\/p>\n

Petrus and Melany Viljoen, known from \u2018The Real Housewives of Pretoria\u2019, were arrested after cops say they stole from Publix<\/p>\n

On Instagram, a reality-TV expat couple looks to be living their best South Florida lives, hanging at The Breakers in Palm Beach, dining in Miami\u2019s Design District and shopping at Brickell City Centre.<\/p>\n

Offline, things were not as they seem, authorities say.<\/p>\n

According to a probable cause affidavit from the Boca Raton Police Department, Melany \u201cMel\u201d Viljoen of \u201cThe Real Housewives of Pretoria,\u201d and her husband Petrus \u201cPeet\u201d Viljoen, were arrested on Tuesday and held on $10,000 bond apiece.<\/p>\n

The Boca-based South Africans were charged with aggravated grand retail theft of over $3,000. The victim? Publix.<\/p>\n

The Viljoens are accused of shoplifting \u201cmultiple\u201d items between August 2025 \u2014 a few months after moving to the area \u2014 and March 2026 at the Mercado Real store at 1001 S. Federal Hwy.<\/a> Merchandise included wine, sparkling water, toilet paper, potatoes, beets and eggs, the complaint says.<\/p>\n

Authorities launched an investigation Aug. 29 after surveillance footage showed the pair \u201cticket switching\u201d \u2014 scanning lower-priced items, like \u201cseasoning packets,\u201d underneath more expensive ones \u2014 at the self-checkout lanes.<\/p>\n

Now flagged as \u201csuspicious\u201d customers by the loss prevention team, the couple kept hitting up the location for months. As of March 8, the suspects were found to have failed to pay for 392 items in 52 transactions \u2014 for a total loss to Publix of $5,302.17, police say.<\/p>\n

\"Melany Melany Viljoen; Petrus Jacobus Viljoen Credit: Palm Beach County Sheriff Office Credit: Palm Beach County Sheriff Office <\/p>\n

Melany, 39, later confessed after being shown in-store footage of the alleged incidents, telling police she was forced to steal \u201cbecause she was \u2018in survival mode\u2019 and has not worked since coming to the U.S. due to not having a Visa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peet, 57, confirmed their identities after seeing the same footage, but admitted no wrongdoing, adds the report, which lists both as \u201cunemployed.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to \u201cThe South African,\u201d<\/a> a media outlet in their homeland, these two are no strangers to legal problems. It reports that the self-proclaimed \u201cdiamond nail specialist\u201d and former lawyer (he was disbarred<\/a>) are facing charges of fraud, racketeering and theft in \u201can ongoing investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

A hearing on the matter is set for April 9.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Madeleine Marr<\/a><\/p>\n

Miami Herald<\/p>\n

Celebrity\/real time news reporter Madeleine Marr has been with The Miami Herald since 2003. She has covered such features as travel, fashion and food. In 2007, she helped launch the newspaper\u2019s daily People Page, attending red carpet events, awards ceremonies and press junkets; interviewing some of the biggest names in show business; and hosting her own online show. She is originally from New York City.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Petrus and Melany Viljoen, known from \u2018The Real Housewives of Pretoria\u2019, were arrested after cops say they stole…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[692,123,125,124,88540,2231],"class_list":["post-189207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-arrest","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-petrus-and-melany-viljoen","tag-publix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}