Couple charged in ring suspected of stealing 1 million USD in Lululemon clothing

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A Connecticut couple has been charged in Minnesota with being part of a shoplifting ring, suspected of stealing about $1 million in merchandise across the country from high-end sportswear retailer Lululemon.

Jadion Anthony Richards, 44, and Akwele Nickeisha Lawes-Richards, 45, both of Danbury, Conn., were charged this month with one count of organized retail theft. Both walked free last week after posting bail of $100,000 for him and $30,000 for her, court records show. They are due back in Ramsey County District Court in St. Paul on December 16.

According to the criminal complaints, a Lululemon investigator had been tracking the pair even before police first confronted them on Nov. 14 at a store in suburban Roseville. The investigator told police the pair were responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses across the country, the complaints said. They would steal items and make fraudulent returns, it said.

Police found suitcases containing more than $50,000 worth of Lululemon clothing when they searched the couple’s hotel room in Bloomington, the complaint said.

According to the investigator, they were also suspected of thefts from Lululemon stores in Colorado, Utah, New York and Connecticut, the complaint states. In Minnesota, they were also charged with shoplifting in Minneapolis and the suburbs of Woodbury, Edina and Minnetonka.

The investigator said the two were part of a group that would usually travel to a city and visit Lululemon stores there for two days, return to the East Coast to exchange the items without receipts for new items, take the new items back with the return receipts for credit card refunds, then go back to commit more thefts, the complaint states.

At least in some of the thefts, it said, Richards would go into the store first and buy one or two cheap items. He would then return to the sales floor where, with the help of Lawes-Richards, they would remove a security sensor from another item and place it on one of the items he had just purchased. Lawes-Richards and another woman would then hide the leggings under their clothes.

Then they would go together. When the security sensors at the door went off, he offered the staff the bag containing the items he had purchased while the women continued to walk out, tricking the staff into thinking it was his sensor that had set off the alarm, the complaint states. .

Richards’ attorney declined comment. Lawes-Richards’ public defender did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday.

“This result continues to underscore our ongoing collaboration with law enforcement and our investments in advanced technology, team training and investigative capabilities to combat retail crime and hold offenders accountable,” Tristen Shields, Lululemon’s vice president of asset protection, said in a statement. “We remain dedicated to continuing these efforts to address and prevent this industry-wide problem.”

The two are being prosecuted under a state law passed last year that seeks to crack down on organized retail theft. One of its lead authors, Sen. Ron Latz of St. Louis Park, said 34 states already had organized retail crime legislation on their books.

“I am pleased to see that it is working as intended to bring down criminal operations,” Latz said in a statement. “This type of theft hurts retailers in countless ways, including lost economic activity, job losses and threats to worker safety when crime goes away. It also hurts consumers through rising costs and compromised products sold online.”

Two Minnesota women were also targeted under the new law in August. They were accused of attacking a Lululemon store in Minneapolis.