Woman Arrested for Allegedly Stealing $2,500 of Stanley Drinking Cups
Arrest is the latest episode in the viral craze over the water bottles
2 min
The Stanley cup craze has taken a criminal turn.
A 23-year-old Sacramento, Calif., woman was arrested after allegedly stealing nearly $2,500 worth of Stanley cups from a retail store, local police said. The woman allegedly filled her shopping cart with Stanley Quenchers—the insulated cups that have thrown social-media into a frenzy in recent months—and left without paying.
When police tracked her down, they found her car filled with 65 of the cups, according to Lt. Chris Ciampa of the Roseville Police Department. She was arrested on charges of grand theft and driving under the influence, Ciampa said.
The arrest was the latest episode in the viral craze over the water bottles. The stainless-steel tumblers—the popular, 40-ounce version of which sells for $45—have become a status symbol for many women and teens, sparking chaos at retailers and launching a resale market where certain colors sell for more than $200 apiece. The hashtag #stanleytumbler has more than a billion views on TikTok and has been used more than 180,000 times on Instagram.
Stanley, which has been in business for more than a century, has long been a popular brand for hikers, teachers and construction workers. But as the Quencher’s popularity skyrocketed in recent years, its maker capitalised on the new demand with collaborations and a wider, pastel-driven colour palette.
“We were a brand that was a $70 million brand that appealed to guys with a green bottle that was 107 years old and is one of the greatest products in history,” Stanley’s president, Terence Reilly, said in an interview earlier this month. He added: “There was a big opportunity to reposition the brand and appeal to new consumers. And that’s just what we set out to do in 2020.”
In 2022, the company said there was a 150,000-person long wait list for the Quencher and sales had more than tripled from the prior year.
The cups have sparked a collectors’ craze, with devotees amassing dozens of colors and fighting over limited-edition releases. Ahead of one such release, for the Starbucks x Stanley pink Quencher, shoppers camped overnight outside Target locations to ensure they got a cup. The products sold out in minutes at some stores, and a viral video of frenzied shoppers rushing a display in one location sparked consternation online.
Those limited-edition pink cups, which are currently not available on Target or Stanley’s website, are now retailing for hundreds of dollars on resale sites like eBay and StockX.
Ciampa, the police lieutenant, said he believes the woman likely intended to resell online the 65 cups that were in her car. The department warned any potential thieves against repeating her behavior.
“While Stanley Quenchers are all the rage, we strongly advise against turning to crime to fulfil your hydration habits,” it said in a statement.
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The lunar flyby would be the deepest humans have traveled in space in decades.
4 min
It’s go time for the highest-stakes mission at NASA in more than 50 years.
On April 1, the agency is set to launch four astronauts around the moon, the deepest human spaceflight since the final Apollo lunar landing in 1972.
The launch window for Artemis II , as the mission is called, opens at 6:24 p.m. ET.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration teams have been preparing the vehicles to depart from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on the planned roughly 10-day trip. Crew members have trained for years for this moment.
Reid Wiseman, the NASA astronaut serving as mission commander, said he doesn’t fear taking the voyage. A widower, he does worry at times about what he is putting his daughters through.
“I could have a very comfortable life for them,” Wiseman said in an interview last September.
“But I’m also a human, and I see the spirit in their eyes that is burning in my soul too. And so we’ve just got to never stop going.”
Wiseman’s crewmates on Artemis II are NASA’s Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
What are the goals for Artemis II?
The biggest one: Safely fly the crew on vehicles that have never carried astronauts before.
The towering Space Launch System rocket has the job of lofting a vehicle called Orion into space and on its way to the moon.
Orion is designed to carry the crew around the moon and back. Myriad systems on the ship—life support, communications, navigation—will be tested with the astronauts on board.
SLS and Orion don’t have much flight experience. The vehicles last flew in 2022, when the agency completed its uncrewed Artemis I mission .
How is the mission expected to unfold?
Artemis II will begin when SLS takes off from a launchpad in Florida with Orion stacked on top of it.
The so-called upper stage of SLS will later separate from the main part of the rocket with Orion attached, and use its engine to set up the latter vehicle for a push to the moon.
After Orion separates from the upper stage, it will conduct what is called a translunar injection—the engine firing that commits Orion to soaring out to the moon. It will fly to the moon over the course of a few days and travel around its far side.
Orion will face a tough return home after speeding through space. As it hits Earth’s atmosphere, Orion will be flying at 25,000 miles an hour and face temperatures of 5,000 degrees as it slows down. The capsule is designed to land under parachutes in the Pacific Ocean, not far from San Diego.
Is it possible Artemis II will be delayed?
Yes.
For safety reasons, the agency won’t launch if certain tough weather conditions roll through the Cape Canaveral, Fla., area. Delays caused by technical problems are possible, too. NASA has other dates identified for the mission if it doesn’t begin April 1.
Who are the astronauts flying on Artemis II?
The crew will be led by Wiseman, a retired Navy pilot who completed military deployments before joining NASA’s astronaut corps. He traveled to the International Space Station in 2014.
Two other astronauts will represent NASA during the mission: Glover, an experienced Navy pilot, and Koch, who began her career as an electrical engineer for the agency and once spent a year at a research station in the South Pole. Both have traveled to the space station before.
Hansen is a military pilot who joined Canada’s astronaut corps in 2009. He will be making his first trip to space.
Koch’s participation in Artemis II will mark the first time a woman has flown beyond orbits near Earth. Glover and Hansen will be the first African-American and non-American astronauts, respectively, to do the same.
What will the astronauts do during the flight?
The astronauts will evaluate how Orion flies, practice emergency procedures and capture images of the far side of the moon for scientific and exploration purposes (they may become the first humans to see parts of the far side of the lunar surface). Health-tracking projects of the astronauts are designed to inform future missions.
Those efforts will play out in Orion’s crew module, which has about two minivans worth of living area.
On board, the astronauts will spend about 30 minutes a day exercising, using a device that allows them to do dead lifts, rowing and more. Sleep will come in eight-hour stretches in hammocks.
There is a custom-made warmer for meals, with beef brisket and veggie quiche on the menu.
Each astronaut is permitted two flavored beverages a day, including coffee. The crew will hold one hourlong shared meal each day.
The Universal Waste Management System—that’s the toilet—uses air flow to pull fluid and solid waste away into containers.
What happens after Artemis II?
Assuming it goes well, NASA will march on to Artemis III, scheduled for next year. During that operation, NASA plans to launch Orion with crew members on board and have the ship practice docking with lunar-lander vehicles that Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have been developing. The rendezvous operations will occur relatively close to Earth.
NASA hopes that its contractors and the agency itself are ready to attempt one or more lunar landing missions in 2028. Many current and former spaceflight officials are skeptical that timeline is feasible.
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