Couple charged in ring suspected of stealing $1 million in Lululemon clothes

MINNEAPOLIS — A Connecticut couple has been charged in Minnesota with being part of a shoplifting ring suspected of stealing around $1 million in goods across the country from the upscale athletic wear retailer Lululemon.

Jadion Anthony Richards, 44, and Akwele Nickeisha Lawes-Richards, 45, both of Danbury, Connecticut, were charged this month with one felony count of organized retail theft. Both went free last week after posting bail bonds of $100,000 for him and $30,000 for her, court records display. They’re due back in Ramsey County District Court in St. Paul on Dec. 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 couple 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 in thefts from Lululemon stores in Colorado, Utah, recent York and Connecticut, the complaint said. Within Minnesota, they were also accused of thefts at stores in Minneapolis and the suburbs of Woodbury, Edina and Minnetonka.

The investigator said the two were part of a throng that would usually trip to a city and hit Lululemon stores there for two days, profitability to the East Coast to trade the items without receipts for recent items, receive back the recent items with the profitability receipts for capitalization card refunds, then head back out to commit more thefts, the complaint said.

In at least some of the thefts, it said, Richards would enter the store first and buy one or two cheap items. He’d then profitability to the sales floor where, with assist from Lawes-Richards, they would remove a safety sensor from another item and put it on one of the items he had just purchased. Lawes-Richards and another woman would then conceal leggings under their clothing.

They would then leave together. When the safety sensors at the door went off, he would propose staff the bag with the items he had bought, while the women would keep walking out, fooling the staff into thinking it was his sensor that had set off the alarm, the complaint said.

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

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

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

“I am glad to view it is working as intended to bring down criminal operations,” Latz said in a statement. “This type of theft harms retailers in myriad ways, including lost economic activity, job deficit, and threats to worker safety when crime goes unaddressed. It also harms consumers through rising costs and compromised products being resold online.”

Two Minnesota women were also charged under the recent law in August. They were accused of targeting a Lululemon store in Minneapolis.