South African Reality TV Couple Arrested in Florida

A South African reality TV couple started scamming supermarkets after they moved to Florida last year, authorities say. Mel Viljoen, 39, and her husband, Peet Viljoen, 57, who appeared on Real Housewives of Pretoria, were arrested on Tuesday and accused of stealing more than $5,300 in items from a Publix in Boca Raton, WPEC reports. Investigators say that from August 2025 through this month, couple carried out 52 transactions using a "ticket-switching" method at self-checkout: scanning cheap seasoning packets while bagging higher-priced goods, and sometimes skipping payment points entirely.

Surveillance video and transaction data allegedly show 392 unscanned items. The allegedly stolen items including cases of expensive sparkling water and bottles of prosecco, along with toilet paper, produce, and other groceries, the New York Post reports. Police say Peet often distracted employees while Mel scanned the items. In police interviews, Peet denied intentional theft while Melany claimed she acted alone and was in "survival mode" because she couldn't work legally in the US.

• Detectives say the footage contradicts both of their accounts. Each is charged with aggravated grand retail theft over $3,000.
• Experts say they will probably end up being deported back to South Africa, where more legal trouble awaits, including a fraud investigation, the Citizen reports.
• On social media, the couple have praised President Trump, who has encouraged white South Africans to come to the US as refugees. Earlier this year, they denied that they had been picked up by ICE. Peet Viljoen said he had gone quiet on social media because he had been studying to become an attorney in the US, despite having been disbarred in South Africa. "I am going to become the richest attorney in the US," he wrote. "I already have the prettiest wife. I drive some of the nicest cars. The US is good to us." On his immigration status, he said, "We do not have to explain to anyone if we have green cards or yellow cards. I regularly speak to Trump's people, and they all know about white genocide."