“I’ve stolen maybe four or five Jellycats,” confesses 24-year-old Amber*. “And I will continue to do so because they make good presents and I don’t agree with the pricing. So why not?” Amber is part of what The Guardian has dubbed the Jellycat crime wave, a phenomenon that began around 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jellycats are soft toys made by the British company Jellycat, founded in 1999 by brothers Thomas and William Gatacre. While the company also sells books, nursery items, bags and other accessories, nothing has been as successful as its soft toys. Jellycats come in countless forms, from bunnies and rose bouquets to sausage dogs and eggs on toast. If you can imagine it, chances are there’s a Jellycat version of it. 

During the pandemic, Jellycats, along with other soft toy brands like Squishmallows, experienced a significant rise in popularity and sales, particularly online; not just among children but adults too. TikTok became flooded with videos of people visiting Jellycat Patisseries in New York, London and Paris, and showing off their hauls and collections. These videos have racked up tens of thousands of views, with Jellycat enthusiasts documenting their obsessions for an audience captivated by cuteness.

As Maya Kronic, co-author of the book Cute Accelerationism, told contributing editor Günseli Yalcinkaya in her article, “How cute became the defining aesthetic of the internet age,” cuteness dominated online spaces during the pandemic because, as she put it, “we live in un-cute times.” The pandemic exposed and exacerbated existing inequalities, from systemic racism to widespread poverty, while government failures led to avoidable mass deaths. Against this bleak backdrop, many turned to the comforting escapism of cute aesthetics. “In an era of worsening economic inequality, climate crisis, and war there are plenty of reasons why young people are gravitating towards cuteness,” Yalcinkaya observed.

Today, Jellycats have become a full-blown trend. Much like Miffy and Hello Kitty, these soft toys dominate social media feeds, where videos of excessive hauls can create a sense of FOMO – even for those who didn’t think they wanted one. However, Jellycats can be prohibitively expensive. The Guardian highlighted this with the company’s recent collaboration with Harrods, which went viral on TikTok: exclusive tea-set Jellycats included Cheryl Cherry Cake at £44.95, Vicky Teapot at £32.95, and Seb Teacup at £19.95. In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, who can justify spending £40 on a soft toy?

As a result, people like Amber* and 23-year-old Taylor* have turned to stealing Jellycats. “The guy I was seeing at the time stole one for me,” Taylor tells Dazed. “We played a game of pool, and when he lost, he had to buy me a Jellycat as part of the bet. But when we got to the store and he saw it cost nearly £50, he refused to pay. Instead, he stole the graduation egg Jellycat to celebrate my university graduation.”

While many steal Jellycats because they’re unaffordable, the trendiness of these soft toys has also led to a booming resale market. For example, on eBay, the limited-edition Harrods Seb Teacup and Vicky Teapot set is listed for between £90 and £270, more than twice the original price at the higher end. While Jellycat fanatics are annoyed at resellers, it’s worth noting that many who resell stolen Jellycats likely do so out of financial necessity.

At the end of last year, 35-year-old Ruby Smith was caught stealing £4,000 worth of Jellycats in a series of garden centre raids. Her defence lawyer, Andy Spence, explained that Smith committed the thefts during a time of severe financial hardship; she and her partner had been forced to leave their rented home when their landlady decided to sell the property. “The pressures led Miss Smith into a position where she felt desperate and acted in desperation to alleviate those pressures,” Spence said.

Not everyone is in the same financial situation as Smith, but most people can’t afford basic things anymore. From groceries to clothes, people are struggling to make ends meet – let alone afford small comforts like a Jellycat. This is the main reason shoplifting continues to rise in the UK, with more than 443,000 incidents of shop theft recorded by police in the year to March 2024, the highest number since records began 20 years ago.

Of course, we should challenge our relationship with consumption and the impulse to follow every trend we see on TikTok. But it’s hard to fault people for stealing Jellycats, whether out of financial desperation or simply because they want one. People deserve to have nice things. And in a world where corporations exploit us daily, and capitalism steals our time and well-being, what’s so wrong with people getting their lick back?

*Names have been changed