Two people from Connecticut have been charged with stealing goods worth a million dollars from Lululemon shops in at least five states.
Based on a story in The New York Times, Jadion Anthony Richards, 44, and Akwele Nickeisha Lawes-Richards, 45, both from Danbury, Conn., have been charged with one felony count of organized retail theft for a series of crimes that began in September.
The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office in Minnesota says that the two are likely part of a group that steals from stores. One day before, they stole 45 things worth almost $5,000 from a Lululemon store in Roseville, Minn., but they were caught at a store in Woodbury, Minn.
Court records show that the couple began stealing from stores in Minnesota, including Minnetonka, Edina, and Minneapolis, as well as stores in New York, Utah, Colorado, and Connecticut. When they were caught in their Bloomington, Minnesota, hotel, they had more than $50,000 worth of Lululemon products.
An agent said that Richards would go to a store and buy one or two things. This is how they would steal. Then, they would take a security tag off of something else and put it on one of the things Richards had just bought. After that, they’d also wear goods under their clothes.
When the bell went off at the Lululemon store, Richards would show the workers what he had just bought. A third person who was with them would then leave with the thing they stole while this was going on. The next step is to exchange the clothes without a receipt at a different shop.
When they traded the clothes in for new ones, they made sure that the new things they bought were slightly more expensive than the things they had stolen. This way, they would have to pay the difference and get a ticket for their purchase. After that, they’d return the items to a different shop and get their money back in full.
Lululemon says that these thefts have cost the company almost $1 million, according to court papers.
Richards and Lawes-Richards could each get 15 years in jail and a $35,000 fine.
