Jellycat Hijinks

These toys are flying off shelves, just not always into hands of paying customers.

Jellycat plushies are cute, cuddly, joyful, and so popular that it can be tricky to locate them on toy store shelves. But the hard-to-find collectibles are also easy targets for theft.

About a dozen of the super-soft stuffed animals with names like “Boiled Egg Bride,” “Étienne Éclair,” and “Brigitte Brioche” have been stolen from Toys Unique on Lovers Lane over the past year-and-a-half, the store’s owner Pam May said. 

At first, staff thought that only smaller Jellycats, such as golf and tennis balls, were going missing. But then they realized some of the larger toys, including a snake, had been taken as well. 

May said she hasn’t calculated the value of the stolen Jellycats, and she doesn’t want to know.

“Most of our customers are just as honest as the day is long, just precious, wonderful people,” May said. “But there’s always somebody out there, and you never know. They don’t look like they would steal, and yet they’ll steal.”

Jellycat, which was founded by a pair of British brothers in 1999, is the hot toy of the moment. U.S. sales of the plushies grew by 41% between the first halves of 2023 and 2024, and the company made about $252 million between the end of 2022 and December 2023, according to a Feb. 16 article in Fortune.

The brand has 1.5 million followers on TikTok, and 1.8 million on Instagram. Popular Jellycats, such as a sun with a happy smile and tiny feet, and a fuzzy, grey, unhappy-looking storm cloud, are sold out online.

“When you see a potted plant that’s got a face on it, or you see a banana that’s got a smiley face on it, it’s just sweet. There’s something about the design that’s so nice,” said collector Alec Contreras.

Contreras works at Plano toy store The Toy Tree Tx, which carries a wide variety of Jellycats. He’s been collecting on and off for about eight years and uses the colorful stuffies as décor in his home.

But Jellycats are known for adorable smiles, not low price tags. And Toys Unique isn’t the only store with a theft problem. Many of the plushies are small and easy to stuff into a purse or pocket. 

British paper The Guardian has reported on a Jellycat “crime wave” and the ways retailers across the United Kingdom are protecting their stockpiles of stuffies.

Closer to home, Bluffview resident Debbie Sanders, who owns The Toy Tree Tx, said that between 40 and 50 Jellycats have been stolen from her store in the last year.

“People want them, and they’re just taking them,” she said. “If they’re in their lululemon pants, they’ll put them in there,” she said. “They’ll wear a sweatshirt and put them in their pockets.”

Sanders said she pulled Jellycats out of one customer’s purse after she tried to hide them there. Sanders has posted a video on Instagram of another thief stuffing the toys into a Marc Jacobs tote. 

Toys Unique on Lovers Lane has put up signs warning potential shoplifters that they’re on camera, and May says that just one Jellycat, a Happy Raindrop, has gone missing since she made that change. Toys Unique, May said, has been in business for 42 years, and she’s very connected to the community.

“We absolutely love our customers,” she said. “I think one day maybe I’ll retire, but then I almost get tears in my eyes thinking, ‘But I can’t retire. These are my friends.’”